E (3lance BacKwarb 



OSBORK 




Copyright N!*_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A Glance Backward 



Editorial Reminiscences 



BY 

NORRIS G. OSBORN 

Editor of the New Haven Register 






NEW HAVEN: 

THE TUTTLE, MOREHOUSE & TAYLOR COMPANY 
1905 



OCT, 37 1905 
I X^ I SI 






COPYRIGHT 1905 

BY 

NORRIS G. OSBORN 



Js, <b\anc(t !^ackwar6 



I 

Only children think in years. They 
look upon one older by as few as fif- 
teen years than themselves as vener- 
able in the service they have given life, 
and to have reached that period of ex- 
istence where the enforcement of the 
Osier theory of incapacity is in the 
highest sense logical and essential to 
the welfare of the race. Man, in his 
more reasonable view of things, soon 
learns an intelligent disrespect for days, 
weeks, months and years, and settles 
back into the comfortable and sane 
philosophy that h^ is as old as he feels 
and no older. By this measure I have 
seen and conversed with old men at 
twenty-five, and revelled in the society 



6 A Glance Backward 

of young men at seventy-five. Hence 
to me the completion of twenty-five 
years of service on the editorial staff 
of The Register seems merely to have 
brought me to the end of one of the 
lanes marked with red ink upon the 
map of life. I have not lost all of the 
illusions of youth, though some of them 
have been reformed to suit the con- 
venience of the world's drama; old 
friendships are still dear and new 
friendships are still stimulating; there 
are yet battles worth the fighting, even 
if human nature yields reluctantly to 
better things; there is no end of pleas- 
ure in sight, no limit to the knowledge 
one may acquire in the search for self- 
control, and finally an ever-expanding 
faith in the worth, at heart, of men 

and things. 

* * « 

Twenty-five years ago, when the ac- 
cident of birth and the privilege of re- 
lationship settled for me the manner 
in which I v/as to enter the ranks of 



A Glance Bachward i 

the breadwinners, The Register was 
printed in a building on Chapel street, 
which still bears across its forehead 
the label of its former usefulness. It 
was ill suited to the needs of news- 
papei* publication as they exist today, 
but it was comfortable and sufficient 
for that time and generation, when the 
editor had laws of hospitality to obey 
as well as news to harness. There 
was room for the staff, and chairs for 
the daily visitors, a part of whose 
regular life was to indirectly partici- 
pate in the making of the newspaper. 
My father, Minott A. Osborn, had laid 
away his trenchant pen three years 
earlier, though youthful and buoyant 
in his view of life. His powers were 
at their height when he died and left 
no successor. W. H. H. Blackman, the 
versatile city editor, had given way 
to "William Rodman, who was destined 
to become an even more brilliant maker 
of newspapers. V/illiam Parsons, now 
in the Philippines, was the editor, 



8 A Glance Backivard 

Minott E. Osborn business manager, 
Orange M. Pickett and Ike Wolfe fore- 
men in the composing room, and 
George Hopkins the presiding genius 
in the press room. Faithful old John 
Baldwin, Walter Wells and Sol 
Wolfe were three of the compositors. 
These were among the men who labored 
with unsurpassed enthusiasm to make 
the immense blanket sheet of their day 
newsy and attractive. To have had the 
privilege of learning the mysteries of 
the craft with those men is to be ex- 
tremely grateful as the association is 
recalled. They were kind, considerate 
and encouraging to the cub, who had 
anticipated an apprenticeship under his 
father. In those days the newspapers 
did not anticipate events, though clear- 
ly foreshadowed, and I recall the look 
of disappointment, which was purely 
professional, upon the face of the city 
editor when I informed him that a cer- 
tain man, then lying at the point of 
death, would live until after the paper 



A Glance BacJcward 9 

had gone to press. Since it was in- 
evitable, he could not see why Provi- 
dence should so boldly play into the 
hands of the morning papers. The Reg- 
ister went to press with the reluctant 
statement that the distinguished pa- 
tient was holding his own. 



10 A Glance Backward 



II 



The population of New Haven in 1880 
was, according to the federal census, 
a few hundred in excess of 62,000, 
though then, as now, there were those 
who claimed more. It is no exaggera- 
tion to assert that today the popula- 
tion numbers more than twice that, 
a no mean record for the short space 
of time alloted for the growth. The 
New Haven of twenty-five years ago 
was a broth of a lad, but he was awk- 
ward and ungainly. It is with diffl- 
culty that one recognizes the city of 
today with one's eyes on the past. The 
old colonial families were still impres- 
sive in their local influence, and were 
as familiarly known as others of 
that class are today in many 
of the small towns of the state. 
The Irish-American and the Ger- 
man-American, who represented the 



A Glance BacJciuard n 

immigration of that period, had taken 
their places in our midst and begun 
to wield that influence upon our des- 
tinies, both political and social and re- 
ligious, which has since earned them 
full fellowship in the brotherhood of 
our local life. They were simply 
younger emigrants then; they have 
since taken root in the soil of the town 
and are, too, town born themselves. 
Today we have a population among 
whom we have to search diligently for 
the representatives of the old stock, 
and for their domination in connection 
with the Irish and German. "We have 
with us hundreds and hundreds who 
represent practically all of the races 
upon earth, and whose numbers are 
being added to each year. There is 
heard again the same timid fear that 
was heard when the Irish and the Ger- 
man came here, that we shall be un- 
able to assimilate them, and that in 
consequence what the founders fought 
for will be sacrificed. 



12 A Glance Backward 

Those who are apprehensive upon 
this score cannot do better than to 
study the progress of the earlier emi- 
grants to whom I have referred. They 
are as good Americans as the founders 
were, and as sensitive to the influence 
of free institutions, which is what after 
all makes an American. I regretted 
that so many of our recent comers 
found their way, upon the eve of In- 
dependence day to the station house, 
for violation of the local ordinances, 
but they are the more intelligent citi- 
zens for the experience. There are 
more ways than one to reach and edu- 
cate the uneducated. In their cases 
they knew no better; today they do, 
and the offense will not be repeated, 
which is so much gain. I have never 
had the slightest patience, during these 
twenty-five years of active and close 
observation, with the more or less pre- 
valent fear of the emigrant. The mo- 
tive that brings him here and the ex- 
perience he has after he settles here 



A Glance Backward i3 

and learns that his labor, and the 
fruits of it, are protected by law, are 
quite enough to make him an 
upholder of our ways and cus- 
toms. In another twenty-five years 
the mixed population of today will 
be virtually homogeneous, so far aa 
the government of our afCairs is con- 
cerned, and upon the tax books will 
be found the guarantee of American 
law and order, written in names 
wrought in other environments. We 
will do with these people what we have 
done with our locality, which originally 
lay beyond the limits of the city; we 
will take them in and make New Ha- 
veners of them. A city which has 
grown from five thousand odd pilgrims 
to 120 odd thousand residents, 
and which has added Westville, 
Fair Haven, some of East Haven and 
is almost ready to absorb West Haven 
and in the years to come Whitneyville, 
need not worry over how it is going to 
assimilate the races which come here 



14 A Glance Backward 

to live and continue the upbuilding of 
the town. The history of New Haven 
as written in the changes of the past 
twenty-five years offers its pledge of 
everlasting expansion along sober and 
industrious lines. 



It is well to observe in a brief and 
hurried way what the achievements 
are which have accompanied this pro- 
cess of racial absorption. One of the 
great achievements of New Haven dur- 
ing this period has been the perfecting 
of the park system for the moral up- 
lifting and balancing of the masses of 
the people. Not only have the surface 
parks been multiplied, until each section 
of the city has its own pleasure ground, 
but two beautiful elevated parks in 
the eastern and western parts of the 
town have been added and brought un- 
der consistent cultivation, to remain 
forever among the most priceless pos- 
sessions of the people. The abandon- 



A Glance Baclcward 1 5 

ment of the old town farm and the 
establishment of Edgewood park are 
among the victories of the quarter cen- 
tury to which I allude. All this pro- 
gress represents an immense amount 
of intelligent and patriotic work on 
the part of many citizens, who had 
prejudice and obstinacy and littleness 
of spirit to overcome before it could 
be achieved, and it is a pleasure to re- 
call that The Register, with its esteem- 
ed local contemporaries, was forefront 
in the battle for a larger and sweeter 
life. The dangers which awaited the 
adventuresome hill-climber less than a 
quarter of a century ago in the woods 
and on the summit of East Rock have 
given way to the repose and refresh- 
ment of perfect safety. The slowly but 
surely moving forefinger of human pro- 
gress has left its impress upon the not 
altogether pleasant history of that 
beautiful hill. And what has been ac- 
complished for the elevated parks in the 
way of reformation has been accom- 



16 A Glance Backward 

plished for the shore resorts. The loose 
habits and restless temptations of 
twenty-five years ago have disappear- 
ed from the shore, and we have in their 
places the ever moving picture of a 
self-respecting, good natured and or- 
derly crowd seeking what belongs to 
them, the right to breathe God's pure 
air as it blows from the sound and to 
indulge in harmless pleasures and 
recreations, with itself the wise judge 
of the restrictions to be imposed. I 
really believe that the greatest reform 
of the past quarter of a century has 
been worked at Savin Rock, and I am 
equally confident that we have to go 
no further than that object lesson to 
be impressed with the wisdom of ap- 
pealing to the best there is in people 
and leaving them to govern themselves. 
For this we are indebted to the emi- 
grant, who has brought into our Puri- 
tan life the liberality and tolerance 
with which it was not familiar. 



A Glance Backward i "» 



III 

It is interesting to note that Hobart 
B. Bigelow was the mayor of New Ha- 
ven 25 years ago, and was the only man 
from that day to this to leave that of- 
fice for the higher and more dignified 
office of governor. With his large per- 
sonal popularity he had wrested the cit- 
adel of democracy from its builders in 
1879i and his party in the state turned 
to him to win that, which he did the 
following year, defeating James E. 
English, a favorite son in every sense 
of the term. Those of us who knew 
Mayor Bigelow will affectionately recall 
the gentleness of his disposition, and 
find in that the reason for his unbound- 
ed popularity. With the election of 
Mayor Bigelow to the governorship be- 
gan that uncertain political life which 
continued, until Mayor Studley broke 
the record. John B. Robertson, a gen- 



18 A Glance Backward 

tleman of the old school and a demo- 
crat among democrats, succeeded Mr. 
Bigelow, and was in turn succeeded by- 
Henry G. Lewis as an independent can- 
didate endorsed if I am not in error by 
the republicans. George P. Holcomb, a 
representative of the business interests 
of the city, and Judge Samuel A. York, 
who had earned an enviable reputation 
as judge of the probate court, both dem- 
ocrats, followed in order. Dissatisfied, 
the voters turned to Henry P. Peck a 
man in high favor with the working 
classes of the city, but he, a republican, 
gave way to Joseph B. Sargent, the 
most original perhaps of all the 
mayors of the period, and perhaps the 
best fitted by reason of his practical 
knowledge of the needs of the corpora- 
tion. Had his counsel prevailed, the 
slumbering issue of municipal control 
would have at that time been settled 
for a generation. He can be regarded 
as a conservative now, holding the 
same ideas as then; but at that moment 



A Glance BacJcward 1 9 

his radical ideas frightened the old 
fog"ies out of their wits. A. C. Hen- 
drick, who had been the fire chief for 
years and powerful enough to keep the 
department free from political manipu- 
lation, succeeded him as a republican 
and was in turn succeeded by F. B. 
Farnsworth, the candidate of the 
young republicans of the city. After 
one very useful term, troubled by the 
task of enforcing the new charter 
he gave way to Mr. Driscoll.who though 
an old campaigner was himself unable 
to harness that instrument of govern- 
ment, and fell before the lance of Mr. 
Studley in whose hands it appears to 
be a shield and a sword. Whatever one 
may think of his work as chief execu- 
tive of the city, two things must be ac- 
corded him. He understands his city 
better than any man who has served it 
during the quarter of a century, and he 
has had better political luck with it 
than any man except Mr. Bigelow. 



2 A Glance Bachward 

During the period to which I am al- 
luding, New Haven has had three gov- 
ernors, and of each it may be said, that 
he came to that honor under unusual 
conditions. Mr. Bigelow, who had not 
been an active politician, beyond a gen- 
erous contributor to party funds, owed 
his nomination to his redemption of his 
city, and as this was the Gibraltar of 
democracy he was assigned the task of 
redeeming it for state purposes, which 
he discharged. His administration was 
dignified and creditable, though not 
brilliant. Henry B. Harrison, who had 
been an unsuccessful candidate before, 
owed his nomination in 1884 for gover- 
nor to having two years previous de- 
feated Alexander Troup for assembly- 
man. This led to his selection as Speak- 
er of the house, where his impartiality 
and dignity won him the respect of the 
state and secured for him larger hon- 
ors. Luzon B. Morris owed his election 
to the governorship in 1892 to his defeat 
for the same office two years previous, 



A Glance Backward 21 

when the majority provision of the con- 
stitution provoked a deadlock in the 
general assembly, and kept him out of 
ofRce, though his was the majority up- 
on the face of the returns. He later 
took the oath of office but did not un- 
dertake to exercise its powers. It was 
this strange combination of circum- 
stances, which elicited the sympathy of 
the people and led them to elect him 
by a handsome majority over all, though 
in doing so they defeated another New 
Havener of large personal popularity, 
in the person of Samuel E. Merwin. 
The circumstances which made a bene- 
ficiary of one made a victim of the 
other. The three men, Bigelow, Harri- 
son and Morris were unlike in temper- 
ament and disposition, though one in 
the excellence of their citizenship. The 
former was an able business man of no 
false pretensions but of large heart. 
Harrison was a cultured man, a speaker 
of force, a lawyer of attainments and a 
sound counseller. Personally he was 



8 2 A Glance Backward 

rather exclusive. Morris was a quiet, 
reserved man, extremely undemonstra- 
tive, but of sterling worth both as a 
lawyer and a citizen. 



A Glance Bachward 23 



IV 

It is difficult to imagine two men 
more unlike in temperament than for- 
mer Governor Waller and former Gov- 
ernor Henry B, Harrison, the one dash- 
ing and impulsive, the other sedate and 
dignified, and yet a man under provo- 
cation resolute and determined. Both 
lawyers, it is inconceivable that they 
should have taken the same view of 
the same question, so far as it related 
to the great public. It seems almost 
the irony of fate that their public ca- 
reers should in any way have been 
linked together. Waller made straight 
away for the hearts of the people, and 
with an eloquence distinctively his own 
swept all before him, as he had done 
at an earlier period when, opposed by 
that master of old school speech, W. 
W. Eaton of Hartford, then, with him, 
a member of the lower house of the 



2 4 A Glance BacTciuard 

general assembly, sitting at New Ha- 
ven, in the famous controversy over 
the bridging of the river Thames, to 
which the latter was opposed, he re- 
minded him that the progress of the 
nineteenth century was not to be suc- 
cessfully impeded "by the eloquence of 
even the gentleman from Hartford." 
Harrison, on the other hand, was Lhe 
man of prudent speech, using the 
methods of the scholar and the phrase- 
ology of the student of public affairs. 
I know of no parallel in the history of 
the state covering the past twenty-five 
years to offer in comparison, unless it 
be the debate between former Repre- 
sentative Charles A. Russell of the 
Third district and his political antag- 
onist, David A. Wells of Norwich. I 
am far from sure that the comparison 
is a fair one, but it serves its purpose 
in this particular, that, with all of his 
scholarship and cultivation. Wells was 
no match for Russell in the rough and 
tumble life of the stump. The debate 



A Glance Backward 2 5 

turned on the merits and demerits of 
the protective tariff, and though Mr. 
Wells pushed home his carefully com- 
piled facts with great precision and 
accuracy, it was Russell to whom the 
audiences gave their cheers as he 
rattled off with magnetic confidence 
the arguments of a tu-quoque charac- 
ter. So with Waller and Harrison, the 
former had worked his Gatling gun of 
effervescent brilliancy before the thun- 
der of Harrison's breach loader had be- 
gun its effective work, for I would 
make it clear that Mr. Harrison was 
a speaker of striking force. It was 
Waller, however, who knew and sensed 
his audience the quicker. 



The annual meeting and dinner of 
the Army and Navy club of Connecti- 
cut in 1885 was held at the city of 
Hartford, on the evening of the day 
the Buckingham statue was dedicated 
at the western entrance of the Capitol 



8 6 A Glance Backward 

building. Both Governor "Waller and 
Speaker of the House Harrison had 
been interested spectators of the pro- 
cession of grizzled veterans of the civil 
war, bearing with them the tattered 
battle flags, as they passed through the 
corridors. Among others to march at 
the head of the fighting remnant was 
brave old Joe Hawley, a senator of the 
United States, and himself a former 
governor, singing lustily the Sherman 
melody of "Marching Through Geor- 
gia." I stood near them and watched 
with interest the effect of the occasion 
upon each, though not knowing what 
the emotions were which were being 
provoked, and not dreaming of the dra- 
matic incident which was to bring the 
old soldiers to their feet later in the 
evening, as a consequence of the differ- 
ent impression made during those mo- 
ments upon the distinguished gentle- 
men to whom I am referring in this 
connection. The evening came, and as 
a member of the resplendent staff of 



A Glance Backward 27 

his excellency I, too, was bidden to the 
dinner served in the dining hall of the 
Allyn house. It was a characteristic 
gathering of Connecticut men, keen in 
the scent for humor, and the hunt for 
the trophy of the intellectual chase. 
Dinner was finished, and the veterans 
of land and sea prepared themselves 
for the feast of reason, with brave 
Harry Allen in charge of the cheering 
section. Governor Waller had been 
called upon to make response to the 
toast of "The State of Connecticut," 
and had acquitted himself with charm- 
ing credit. His spirits rose with those 
of his sympathetic audience, and as he 
ran on, in his inimitable way, cheer 
after cheer inspired him to those addi- 
tional efforts which are so characteris- 
tic of sensitive public speakers, and 
which so many times, as I have reason 
to remember, have fascinated the re- 
porters, with Waller speaking, and 
made them forgetful of their work. He 
finished only to be called again and 



2 8 A Glance Backward 

again to his feet to acknowledge the 
compliments of the prolonged applause. 
I have heard Waller a great many 
times since, under every conceivable 
oratorical condition, but I have never 
seen him when he was in such com- 
mand of himself, and when, curiously 
enough at the time, I thought it would 
not be safe to cross his path with criti- 
cal intent. He felt the warmth of the 
reception that had been given him, a 
democratic governor of the state, by 
men largely in political disagreement 
with him, and he responded to their 
encouragement with the best there was 
in him. 

* * * 

Mr. Harrison was called upon to fol- 
low to the toast of the house of repre- 
sentatives. After he had covered the 
preliminaries of his address, and estab- 
lished for himself a place in the hearts 
of the audience, he began an elaborate 
eulogy of an unmentioned Connecticut 
patriot, who deserved, he said, the place 



A Glance Backward 29 

of honor at the eastern entrance of the 
Capitol building-, to guard it, as Buck- 
ingham would, for all time, guard the 
western entrance. For fully 15 or 20 
minutes, there was no intimation of 
whom he had in mind as fitted for this 
unusual honor. With the coolness and 
calmness of the trained advocate, he 
developed his theme, at one moment 
provoking one line of suggestion, only to 
intentionally lose it the next in rhetori- 
cal obscurity. The veterans watched him 
with intense interest, and with growing 
curiosity, their faces showing plainly 
the emotions of both apprehension and 
fear preceding those of recovered confi- 
dence and hope. It was a battle of ideas, 
some of which were obviously attrac- 
tive and some obviously unattractive, 
but at last he paused for a moment, 
looked his audience steadily in the eye, 
as if to strike a blow for the conviction, 
which had mastered him for the hour, 
and mentioned the name of John 
Brown. I have never seen an audience 



8 A Glance Backward 

so dumbfounded, on the one hand, and 
yet so in command of its urbanity, on 
the other hand. Mr. Harrison took his 
seat amid perfunctory applause, and as 
he did so, Grovernor Waller arose, ask- 
ing- the indulgence of the club. It was 
apparent that he was moved by no or- 
dinary emotion, and it was with match- 
less eloquence, that he took Speaker 
Harrison to task, as a lawyer, for ad- 
vocating the erection, by the state, of 
a memorial in honor of one, ' who, 
knowing the law, deliberately broke it. 
It was a fine burst of oratory and its 
effect upon the veterans was electrical. 
They leaped to their feet, brave Harry 
Allen to the table, and waved their nap- 
kins in the air as they cheered the sen- 
timents of the speaker. It was at this 
moment that I ventured to tug at the 
governor's coattail, fearful lest he might 
add a word, that would unintentionally 
hurt. In a second he quieted his listen- 
ers, and with charming gallantry placed 
his hand upon the left shoulder of 



A Glance Backward si 

Speaker Harrison, whose face, until that 
moment, had been a revelation of the 
surprise that moved him, and said: "If 
these impulsive sentiments offend you, 
let my successor be the distinguished 
speaker of the house of representatives, 
whom I hold in high personal esteem." 
The generosity of the act was enough to 
relieve the tension, and the dinner was 
soon on its normal way again. But the 
interesting fact is that at the next elec- 
tion Mr. "Waller had Mr. Harrison as 
his antagonist, and it was the latter 
who presided over the destinies of the 
state for the next two years, while Wal- 
ler went to London for a four years' 
residence as consul-general of the 
United States of America. 



3 2 A Glance Backward 



V 



There have been but six men elected 
to represent the Second Congressional 
district at Washington in the past 25 
years, and when Nehemiah D. Sperry 
completes his next term, upon which he 
entered in March, he will have oc- 
cupied the seat nearly one-half of that 
time, though I was educated in the be- 
lief that this district was surely demo- 
cratic, and that the man, who at- 
tempted to change the politically divine 
order of things, would bite the dust of 
never-ceasing regret. In 1880, James 
Phelps of Essex was the congressman 
from this district, having been elected 
as a democrat. Stephen W. Kellogg of 
Waterbury, had retired, though even 
then it was in the mouths of men, how 
he had, for three terms, made ducks 
and drakes of the democratic preten- 
sions of the district, defeating even 



A Glance Backward 33 

James E. English in a mig-hty clash of 
paper bullets. I did not know Mr. 
Phelps, and do not remember having 
seen him, though I do recall my youth- 
ful skepticism, when I heard, as I had 
occasion to, his abilities questioned, be- 
cause, as I thought then and still 
think, his weakness grew out of his 
affiliation with a faction of the party, 
with whose alleged errors of judg- 
ment, I was made more familiar by the 
conversation of those of whom I neces- 
sarily saw most. When by myself, I 
could not understand how it was, that 
a man, who occupied the great post of 
the chairman of the ways and means 
committee was inferior in his capaci- 
ty, and though I said nothing about 
it, I resolved to form my own conclu- 
sions thereafter about public men. I am 
frank to say that I had the same doubts 
with regard to the usefulness, or al- 
leged uselessness of Charles L. Mitchell, 
who followed Mr. Phelps in 1883. He too 
erred, it appeared in conversation, in 



3 4 A Glance BacJcivard 

having selected his political friends 
hastily. I am not ready to say that I 
considered him wholly prepared at the 
time for the post of congressman, but 
in nature he was a fair man, a gen- 
erous man and a man of fine percep- 
tions of public duty, with the chances 
altogether in favor of his living up to 
the responsibilities of the office, I may 
say in this connection, that it has been 
my observation that to take another's 
judgment of one, whose character can 
be studied close at hand, is to frequent- 
ly misrepresent the unknown, on the one 
hand, and to undervalue the known, on 
the other hand. The most demoralizing 
practice of all is to let another's politics 
or religion, race or color, become the 
measure of personal and intellectual 
worth. 

Mr. Mitchell served two terms and 
was succeeded by Carlos French, of 
Seymour, a man, who had a stronger 
hold upon the affections of the demo- 
cratic voters of the district than any 
man, before or since, in my recollec- 



A Glance Backward 3 5 

tion, and he in some way, gained this 
position without ever having appeared 
before his constituency, and without 
ever having made a public speech. It 
was at all times within his power to 
be nominated, and, as I believe, elect- 
ed governor of the state, or to any 
other ofRce, which his party could con- 
fer upon him. His democracy was of 
the indelible kind, and, in that respect 
resembled the democracy of former 
Governor Charles R. Ingersoll, who was 
an inveterate, what old "Stan" Smith 
of the Seventh "deestrict" called an in- 
corrigible. Mr. French was one of Mr. 
Cleveland's closest friends, and deser- 
vedly so, for he was a man who gave 
his friendship slowly only to give it 
the mere securely and steadfastly. 
He was succeeded by Washington F. 
Wilcox, of Deep River, in accordance 
with the old practice of alternating 
the representativeships between New 
Haven and Middlesex counties. Why 
a district, so important as the Sec- 
ond, with its large manufacturing in- 
3 



3 6 A Glance Backward 

terests, should turn upon the hinge 
of a mere habit, so far as county rep- 
resentation is concerned, I have never 
understood, and I do not believe it has 
more than political superstition to sup- 
port it. However that may be, Middle- 
sex county sent a hard worker in Mr. 
Wilcox to serve the district, and when 
he retired, he did so with the respect 
of his constituents. James P. Pigott 
followed him, and had it not been for 
the unforeseen revolt of 1894, which 
ushered in the revolutionary campaign 
of two years later, he would today 
probably be the representative from 
this district. He was a scrupulously 
faithful member of congress, but even 
his popularity was unequal to the 
strain to which it was put. Mr. Sperry 
succeeded him, and there he has re- 
mained, usefully filling out a charmed 
political career. Somebody asked me 
the other day, Chief Justice Mills of 
New Mexico, I think, what I consid- 
ered the political complexion of the 
district to be. I looked at the old 



A Glance Backward 37 

campaigner with surprise, and re- 
plied that it has no politics apparent- 
ly, so long as N. D. Sparry lives; he 
seemed to have hypnotized all of the 
voters. Later Judge Mills, if it was he, 
who ventured thus boldly into hitherto 
unexplored fields, asked Mr. Sperry 
what his majority was last fall. Mr. 
Sperry looked surprised, as if suddenly 
asked, where he was three weeks pre- 
vious at 11 minutes past 10 in the 
morning, and ducked the question, out 
of consideration, I suspect, for my 
feelings. I replied for him, however, 
that I had not heard that the counters 
had noticed the minority vote. All 
the rest went to Sperry. Certain it is, 
at any rate, that of all the men who 
have represented this district in con- 
gress, since that body was organized, 
no man has "held down the job" so 
long as Sperry has, from which I as- 
sume it is up to him to determine when 
this period of popular despotism is to 
be abandoned. 



3 8 A Glance Bachward 



VI 

Judged by the political affiliations of 
the mayors, who have held office dur- 
ing the past twenty-five years, it 
would be more accurate to call New 
Haven a democratic city than a re- 
publican, but there all evidence of en- 
couragement for that point of view 
ceases. In practically all other points 
of view, the political progress of New 
Haven has been steadily away from 
the democratic standard, toward that 
of the independent, and for the time 
being into the embrace of the republi- 
can. In the seventies, that remark- 
able group of men who unselfishly 
managed the democratic party, a local 
nomination was equivalent to an elec- 
tion, but that was due more to the dis- 
interestedness of those leaders than a 
natural affinity for the party itself. 
The people saw in them the greater 



A Glance Backward 39 

probabilities of their aspirations being 
gratified. Since 1880 the political move- 
ment has been an uncertain one, to 
this extent at any rate, that no party 
can confidently go to bed with the as- 
surance that the power of office is 
to be forever in its hands. Today, how- 
ever, the republican party is in con- 
trol by a larger certificate of popular 
confidence than any party has ever 
been, since the partisan conflict re- 
ceived its first baptism. There can be 
but one explanation of this, no matter 
how it may hurt the pride of the losers. 
It has not been due the superior mor- 
ale of the republican organization. 
Managing New Haven is a business en- 
terprise and not a political one, so far 
as the gratification of its needs are 
concerned. It has been due to the 
superior shrewdness of the republican 
machine, which has recruited its forces 
from among the new comers, at the 
psychological moment, when to evince 
a fellow feeling for their loneliness 



4 A Glance Backward 

was to make friends and supporters of 
them. With striking keenness have the 
powerful methods of the Tammany so- 
ciety been imported and applied, so far 
as necessary. I do not mean that this 
guarantees any steadier measure of 
success than Tammany has had, but 
it is clear, as written into the local 
history of New Haven, that the suc- 
cessful party leader is long on his 
knowledge of human nature. To be 
politic or tactful is to know human na- 
ture better than the other fellow knows 
it, and that the democratic leadership 
has been indifferent to this scientific 
political fact accounts, at least in part, 
for the situation which exists, and to 
change which will need the most 
patient and painstaking leadership, 
bold to champion the rights of the peo- 
ple and keen to take advantage of the 
blunders and conceit of the enemy. 

From still another point of view the 
prevailing political condition is less cer- 
tain than it has been within the recol- 



A Glance Backward ^i 

lection of older men than myself. The 
revolution, which still has its course 
to run. made its earliest appearance in 
1894, when, contrary to the expectations 
of the wisest political observers, Con- 
necticut went over, body, boots and 
breeches, to the republicans. It was 
a national revolt, to be sure, and from 
my point of view unwarranted by the 
facts, but it left the local democracy 
floundering, and contributed directly to 
the fiercer revolt of two years later. 
I recall that I told Mr. Troup at the 
time that an entirely new deal would 
result, with him the official leader of 
the state organization. That was ex- 
actly what occurred. This is no time 
to pass judgment upon the timeliness 
or wisdom of that departure from old 
creeds, but certain it is that it has re- 
duced the party, for good or evil, to an 
organization of fretful opposition. It 
is no time to lay the blame at the door 
of either the gold or the silver faction 
of the party. For the purposes of this 



4 2 A Glance Backward 

hasty review of mine it is sufficieat 
that, whatever the responsibility, and 
wherever it rests, no political or- 
ganization can receive such a violent 
shaking up and regain a firm foothold 
until the bitternesses of the conflict of 
opinion have entirely passed away. It 
is the old story of the mugwump cam- 
paign over again, and though that in- 
cident has to an extent lost itself in 
the more strenuous events of the life 
of today, its influence will cease en- 
tirely only when the last actor in them 
has folded his tent of life an'd slowly 
stolen away. It is a pity, for Connecti- 
cut and New Haven were never so well 
off in the character of their public ser- 
vants, and in the quality of the service 
given, practical economies were never 
more intelligently enforced and reck- 
less extravagancies more effectually 
suppressed, than in the days when ihe 
division of political power was virtual- 
ly divided equally between the two 
great parties of the day. The life of 



A Glance Backward 4 3 

New Haven in the long run gains noth- 
ing from its being the handmaiden of 
a single political organization, nor does 
the particular party in power gain in 
the usefulness of its service. It may be 
that competition has gone from the 
commercial life of the world to its ad- 
vantage, though I have yet to be con- 
vinced of it, but no such theory can 
hold a moment with its disappearance 
from political life. The element of 
criticism is as important as the ele- 
ment of action. It is that which New 
Haven needs today for its own protec- 
tion, and the needs would be exactly 
the same if the tables were turned and 
the democrats were conditioned as are 
the republicans. Human nature is the 
same in all parties and in all organiza- 
tions, and to leave that out of the cal- 
culation is to play the game with fewer 
than fifty-two cards in the pack. 



4 4 A Glance Backward 



VII 

I have been asked the question sev- 
eral times since I began this hasty re- 
view, this necessarily imperfect and 
conversational review of some of the 
events which have left a distinct im- 
pression upon me during twenty-five 
years of breadwinning, if I was cor- 
rect in stating that the population that 
number of years ago was but sixty-two 
thousand. The mere earnestness of the 
inquiry has made me stop, and would 
perhaps have confused me, had I not 
been sure of my figures, which were 
taken from the census returns and not 
from treacherous tablets of memory. I 
am glad, however, that the accuracy 
of my statement was politely ques- 
tioned, because it showed as nothing 
else could have shown more convincing- 
ly, that we mortals slide through life 
with such everlasting concentration 



A Glance Baclcward 4 5 

upon the needs of the day and the 
week, which have obligations to be 
met, that we fail to take note of the 
surprises of the journey behind. It was 
only a few months ago that I deter- 
mined to break the monotony of my 
daily travels. I had walked up Brad- 
ley street to Whitney avenue, thence 
to Church and Crown streets, on my 
way to the office, until I had literally 
become saturated with the idea that all 
revelations of progress were to be 
looked for thereabouts, and that the 
neglect of the ruins of the Hoadley 
building offered depressing proof of the 
enterpriselessness of New Haven. I 
lost my temper, never of the best, 
when I heard irresponsibly that a one- 
story business block was to be built 
upon the site of the ruins, and recov- 
ered it when the more responsible in- 
formation was given that, in place of 
such a reflection upon the public spirit 
of the town, we were to be given a 
demonstration of the prosperity of a 



4 6 A Glance Backward 

savings bank. It was to correct all 
misapprehension, such as had over- 
taken the skeptical, with regard to the 
growth in population, that I sought en- 
lightenment by means of the trolley 
car as "friend, guide and philosopher." 
It is one thing to ride on a surface car 
for personal ends, or for the achieve- 
ment of a business purpose, but it is 
an altogether different thing to seek 
its revelations with regard to the size 
and growth of New Haven and con- 
template them. It is an old theory of 
mine that, if those who see only prov- 
incialism in our life here, would travel 
to other cities with eyes open and ears 
ready to catch the comments of their 
residents, a return home would bring 
with it a better appreciation of the 
quite extraordinary advantages we 
have, and, on the whole, the progres- 
sive spirit which animates us. New 
Haven is not cosmopolitan in either its 
virtues or its vices, but during the past 
twenty-five years it has grown to a 



A Glance BacJcward 47 

dignity and a poise which is far from 
provincialism. 

Twenty-five years ago New Haven 
stopped abruptly in all four directions. 
It was safe to rely upon the eye to 
determine the populous size of the town 
and city. Today I will defy my neigh- 
bor to find any such easy lines of de- 
markation. Nor does it make any dif- 
ference in which direction the search 
for proof runs; the instructive trolley 
unravels continuously the unbroken 
story of uniform growth and progress, 
and bears one from the busy center 
to equally busy marts of trade in sec- 
tions of the city where the blood of 
men is just as red, and their lives just 
as full of the ambitions of labor as our 
own. Fortunately the trolley leads us 
to no chapter of great wealth. We 
escape that as we escape the more 
dreadful chapter of great distress. It 
shows us a remarkably uniform pros- 
perity, with the hills and valleys, it is 
true, of varied experience, but never- 



4 8 A Glance Backward 

theless with no really serious obstacles 
to surmount, if one is willing and 
earnest in the race. This revelation is 
not to be sought in the library, nor is 
it enough that another should testify 
responsibility to its existence. It is to 
be seen by as many eyes as there are 
heads to hold them, if New Haven is 
to receive from its citizens the best 
there is in them, and that appreciation 
is to be had of New Haven, as a busi- 
ness center, a home of advanced edu- 
cation and a resident site of great 
beauty, which lies at the very founda- 
tion wall of public spirit. It is for 
this reason that each man should on 
his own account take stock of his ex- 
perience once in so often, not neces- 
sarily in twenty-five year doses, but 
oftener. I do not underrate the neces- 
sity of everyday work; kissing may go 
by favor, but the rewards of labor pro- 
ceed from the sweat of the brow; but, 
even so, it is not possible for a citizen 
of New Haven to know what others 



A Glance Backiuard 49 

have made for him, unless he himself 
uses his eyes, and sees what is there 
for the price of a gaze, the rapid 
growth in our manufacturing enter- 
prises, the progressive management of 
our stores, wholesale and retail, the 
multiplication of nicely built and neat- 
ly protected homes, and finally a popu- 
lation which represents less shifting 
than any other population to be found 
in a New England city. This is not 
the achievement of a single year, nor 
of ten or fifteen years. Its roots are 
to be searched in the beginning of 
things, down through their ramifica- 
tions, with a generation for each unit 
of progress. The man who lives for 
the day is a fool; the man who lives 
for the morrow must have a knowledge 
of the past to make his ventures in- 
telligent. Upon this sound theory may 
the contention be based that a better 
knowledge of New Haven will solve 
many of the Imaginary troubles, which 
restless souls are never tired of falsely 
advertising to our common injury. 



6 A Glance Backward 



VIII 

Twenty-five years ago kindly, modest 
and cultured Noah Porter was presi- 
dent of Yale college. A university built 
upon the narrow foundation of the 
college was a dream of men then in the 
making as great educational admin- 
istrators, but it had not caught the 
imagination of the graduate world. 
Noah Porter presided over the simple 
destinies of the institution as a father 
would have done over his family. His 
was the gospel of the simple life. He 
set a high premium upon the culture 
of the soul, as well as upon that of the 
mind. The world had not then learned 
to think in millions, though the tre- 
mendous energy of the young nation 
was preparing us all for the dazzling 
cinematographic picture of boundless 
power in invention and in performance. 
The old Brick Row stretched its modest 



A Glance Backivard si 

length across the open campus. Yale 
then had eyes unveiled, as it watched 
the small stream of humanity flow 
past at its feet. The scientific school 
was slowly fighting its way to recog- 
nition. The goddess of science was 
wooed in those days with no such ardor 
as her admirers show in this genera- 
tion. The other departments were sat- 
isfied with innocently small triumphs, 
relying with simple faith and pure 
heart upon the goodness of God. There 
are hundreds who will recall with me 
the dignified appeals of "Prexy" Por- 
ter for a few thousands, with which to 
add another simple building, with no 
thought of multiple baths and the at- 
tendant luxuries of modern architec- 
ture. The faith of the kindly old man 
was impressive and convincing, though 
at the moment the sunshine and shad- 
ow of a larger life were battling with 
him for recognition. I have never 
doubted that he saw with clearness the 
future, as it has since been written, 
4 



6 2 A Glance Backward 

and I have always desired to believe, 
that, in a sense, he dreaded it, not that 
he questioned its possibly larger use- 
fulness, but that, as essentially the 
scholar, he placed a higher value upon 
quality than quantity. His was the na- 
ture that preferred fifty seekers for 
knowledge, youngsters of mental bone 
and sinew, to five hundred jealous of 
the social rights and privileges, which 
go with a certificate of Yale brother- 
hood. No one, who participated in the 
life of the college during any part of 
his administration, will ever forget 
him, or fail to recall his expression of 
keen distress of mind and heart, when 
his students were obliged to confess 
their ignorance of his book on the 
human intellect. It seemed as if he 
exhausted himself in an attempt to 
burrow his way into the cranium of the 
bewildered pupil. Porter was obviously 
not the man for the cTemands, which 
began to make their pressure felt with- 
in five years from 1880, but he was, 



A Glance Bachivard 5 3 

nevertheless, essential to a period in 
the history, of the institution to which 
allusion is frequently made as full, part 
and parcel of the glory of Yale. 

A few figures, necessarily dry and 
unattractive, will show the marvelous 
growth of Yale since the days of Por- 
ter, down through to the days of 
Dwight, to those of Hadley, all chap- 
ters in the history of New Haven. 
Twenty-five years ago President 
Porter presided over a faculty 
of one hundred earnest instruc- 
tors. Today President Hadley has 
on the payroll of the university 
three hundred and thirty-seven, not in- 
cluding fifty-four assistants in admin- 
istration. The student body has in- 
creased in that time nearly three-fold. 
There were 3,110 enrolled last year, in- 
cluding the summer school of forestry, 
as compared with 1,003 twenty-five 
years ago. The number of volumes in 
the library of the university has in- 
creased since then from 133,000 to 390,- 



6 4 A Glance Bachward 

000, an increase that oddly enough has 
kept the pace with the increase in the 
number of students. To attempt to 
enumerate the number of buildings 
erected would entail a larger work 
than I feel to be necessary 
for the general purposes of this 
review. The graduates of twen- 
ty-five years ago had nothing 
more to dazzle them than the comple- 
tion of Battell chapel and the Pea- 
body museum. The campus was still 
open, yet held in place by the historic 
fence, that steadfast protector of Yale 
democracy. The administration build- 
ing and reading room stood in the cen- 
ter of the open field, the library was 
of smaller proportions, Dwight hall had 
not seen the light of day, nor had Law- 
rence, Welch, Osborn and Vanderbilt 
halls. Farnam and Durfee were the 
only suggestions of the glories to come. 
The new campus had not been reduced 
even to paper, Pierson was a secret 
tightly concealed by its donor, the set- 



A Glance Backward 5 5 

entific school had none of the build- 
ings, which have since gone up in such 
profusion, the center of the city lay 
quietly unsuspicious of the plans a- 
making for its advantageous sacrifice 
to university needs, and the Hillhouse 
estate was seemingly forever wrapped 
in the domestic pride of an historic 
family. To run over, in even this hasty 
and inadequate manner, the giant 
strides, which Tale has made in a 
bunch of twenty-five years, is enough 
to bring one face to face with the 
changes of a single quarter century, 
and to intimate, in the eloquent lan- 
guage of the imagination, the deeds of 
construction yet to be performed. To 
stand a moment before the renovated 
dormitory of Nathan Hale, historic old 
South Middle, the survivor of all past 
and abandoned glories, and then to 
stand awestruck with the magnificence 
of Woolsey hall, two city blocks to the 
north, is to read in letters of brick, 
stone and mortar the wonderful history 



5 6 A Glance Backward 

of New Haven's finest asset. The jour- 
ney from Porter to Hadley is short, as 
I have traveled it, but it is set with 
mile stones forever telling the tale of 
unsuppressed faith in ideals and confi- 
dence in bed rock principles. 



A Glance Backward st 



IX 

The administration of the younger 
Dwight, who is still alive to revel in 
the victories of his judgment and fore- 
sight, began in 1888, and it began with 
a proclamation of university upbuild- 
ing. It was then that the pace was 
set,* which has carried Yale on beyond 
the' limits of a simple life up to those 
of the strenuous. Where Porter left 
it rich in thousands, but yet poor, 
Dwight left it rich in millions, but yet 
poor. It is to President Dwight's far- 
sightedness and courage that New Ha- 
ven owes the great institution of today, 
hot and eager in the race for su- 
premacy, from which there is now no 
turning to the right nor the left. He 
made it an instrument to aid in the 
solution of the great problems of our 
national life, which have come from 
our superb material and manufactur- 



S8 A Glance Backward 

ing development, and when he turned 
joyfully to the full indulgences of the 
eventide of life, ripe in years and ex- 
perience, he did so with the knowledge 
that his had indeed been a work of 
construction, which younger bodies 
must bear the burden of. He found 
a prosperous college, dear to the heart 
of the American people; he left to the 
care of another the university, which 
he had founded, and which holds its 
head proudly among the seats of 
learning in the whole world, wherever 
located. With his breadth of mind it 
can easily be imagined that it was with 
no misgivings at heart, that he saw 
the inevitable work itself out through 
the election of a layman to succeed 
the long line of distinguished clergy- 
men of the Congregational church. It 
was rather with the attitude of mind 
which has been ascribed to St. Paul, 
that he witnessed that wise departure 
from tradition, and that which fol- 
lowed it, when the clerical members 



A Glance Baclciuard 5 9 

of the corporation sought for a suc- 
cessor to the Rev. Dr. Theodore T. 
Dklunger in the person of Payson Mer- 
rill of the class of 1865, a layman. Nor 
is it too much of a stretch of the imag- 
ination to believe that he would de- 
light to live until that day arrives, 
when the affairs of the university are 
cared for, so far as they relate to the 
business of it, upon a business basis. 
Such a man, who builded wisely and 
well, must watch with ever-increasing 
satisfaction the growth of the institu- 
tion which passed its most critical pe- 
riod under his care. And this should 
be the attitude of the people of New 
Haven. There is no use in beating 
the air periodically over the alleged 
detriment of the university to the city, 
and to dwell in imaginary castles of 
apprehension, from whose insecure 
windows only the sightless see clearly. 
The attitude of criticism toward the 
university has something to base it- 
self upon. This is realized by many of 



6 A Glance Bachivard 

its officers, if not all of them, and in 
time what is unjust or unfair will be 
corrected, and such reforms instituted 
as will work for the benefit of both. 
Though perhaps there has been plenty 
of time for each to appreciate the oth- 
er, and to learn to work more intelli- 
gently in double harness, it has only 
been within a comparatively few years 
that events have been at work to draw 
them closer. In the meantime the 
two are linked together for good or 
evil, for better or worse. Separation 
is out of the question, nor need either 
seek to dominate the other. There is 
plenty of room for both within the city 
limits, and fun enough for all. There- 
fore those who make criticism their 
stock in trade, and who biliously see 
only the shadows in the association, 
can scarcely be regarded as friends of 
either the city or the university. One 
of the most important laws governing 
a well-regulated life is to appreciate, 
at its true value, that which is most 



A Glance Backward 6i 

important to it. New Haven has many- 
great assets, but the greatest is Tale, 
for it is Yale that has given it its 
world-wide reputation, and made it 
the Mecca of observing and liberal 
globe trotters. 



It is worth while observing, too, 
that the progress of our public school 
system has kept pace in such a way 
with the progress of the university 
that it is inconceivable that anyone 
should deny the helpful influence of 
the one upon the other. The reputa- 
tion which New Haven has enjoyed all 
these years, as a seat of learning, has 
operated to the advantage of the city 
in two impressive ways, first by a,dd- 
ing to the population and stimulating 
local educational leadership, second by 
making the population itself stable in 
its character. Twenty-five years ago 
there were nearly twelve thousand 
children in our public schools, cared 



6 3 A Glance Backward 

for in twenty-six buildings. Today- 
there are nearly twenty-one thousand 
children being taught at public ex- 
pense, housed in fifty-four buildings, 
many of them models of school con- 
struction. The number of teachers 
employed, including supervising prin- 
cipals, supervisors and special teach- 
ers, has more than doubled. In 1880 
there were 225, today there are 489, 
while the taxpayers have increased 
their cheerful contributions from 
$164,019.33 to $427,019.26. In every 
direction, along educational lines, the 
progress has been uniform and up- 
ward, until it has become almost a 
statement of fact, that an education, 
obtained at the Hillhouse high school 
today, is the equal of that obtained at 
Yale 25 years ago, and actually supe- 
rior to that obtained a half century 
ago. And so beneficial has this spirit 
of progress been that it aided the re- 
formers in their intelligent and suc- 
cessful movement to divorce the school 



A Glance Backward 6 3 

system from practical politics, and 
make the district a part of the consol- 
idated government. There are no 
longer private caucuses, such as I used 
to attend for the impertinent purpose 
of nominating m.embers of the board 
of education. They now receive their 
commissions directly from the mayor, 
who is thereby held officially responsi- 
ble for the character of the school ad- 
ministration. In fact there is no 
chapter in the history of New Haven, 
as written in 25 years of human expe- 
rience, so reassuring, with regard to 
the real manhood there is in the peo- 
ple of the city, as that which has to 
do with the subject of education. It 
furnishes its OvV'n guarantee of a 
splendid future, and while it will not 
reduce the number of restless souls, 
with their everlasting faultfinding, it 
will decrease their power for mischief. 
The most intelligent community is 
necessarily the best governed, which 
is all that need be said upon the sub- 
ject for the present. 



6 4 A Glance Backivard 



X 



If I should undertake to say what 
the most important event was in the 
history of the city of New Haven dur- 
ing the 25 years referred to, in these 
inadequate semi-literary meanderings, 
it would be the act of consolidation, 
which made common government of 
the triple-headed system, which for- 
merly prevailed. The merest consid- 
eration of the subject was always suf- 
ficient to carry conviction with it, and 
the reason why tlje actual achievement 
was so long on the way had to do with 
the obstinacy of human nature. The 
hardest thing in this world to kill is 
an office. You may stab it in a hun- 
dred places, and attempt to drown it 
in the pool of blood, which is formed 
by the accompanying act of assassina- 
tion; it will invariably return to life, 
grinning at its executioners, with the 



A Glance Backward 6 5 

imperturbability of the family cat, 
which, having outlived its usefulness 
and become a nuisance, returns from 
its ducking in the harbor with the 
brick still attached to its neck, which 
was placed there by the faithful hired 
man, never to try your heartlessness 
again. Had it not been for the of- 
fices and the power which they repre- 
sented to those lucky enough to hold 
them, consolidation of the city, town 
and school governments would have 
followed close upon the disclosures of 
its assured advantage. Many were the 
secret conferences that were held by 
those, who were determined to intro- 
duce a more or less scientific method 
of doing, in a comparatively simple 
way, what then required three separ- 
ate ways to secure results. There was 
no hesitation on the part of the munic- 
ipal office holders. They were con- 
vinced from the outset, full of the zeal 
of reform, and pedestrians in the 
straight and narrow path of political 



6 6 A Glance Bachward 

righteousness. There was no loss of 
official employment facing them, no 
sacrifice of power, no diminution of 
what former Governor McLean so 
felicitously called, in his inaugural 
message, "a little brief authority." Like 
Artemus Ward, they were ready to sac- 
rifice all of their wives' relations to 
win in the struggle, those relations in 
this case being the town and school 
officials. The town officials were the 
first to read clearly "the foot prints on 
the wall," and though they did their 
best to erase them, or at 
least so smudge them as to 
render the sight of others dim, 
in time they viewed with friendliness 
the beauty of the band wagon, and 
clambered to its front seats. 



The school commissioners with 
Joseph Plunkett at their head, 
fought after the manner of 
the Old Guard under Napo- 



A Glance Bachward 6 7 

leon; they were ready to die 
in defense of their independence, but 
to surrender, never. Every tune of 
protest that could be played upon the 
strings of the official violin was played 
by those gentlemen, and with varia- 
tions so alluring to the ear that for a 
long time the activities of the reform- 
ers were lulled to sleep. Regardless of 
the fact, that the organization of the 
school district was essentially political 
in character, the musical refrain of 
the opposition told, in the language of 
perfect harmony, the ills in store for 
the people of New Haven, if they 
should make the error of listening to 
the soprano of the syren's voice, and be 
led into an acceptance of political con- 
trol. As I look back upon that strug- 
gle for the organization of one gov- 
ernment, to do the work of three gov- 
ernments, for one common people, and 
recall the time given up to its con- 
sideration, not to mention the expense 
v/hich was not inconsiderable, the 



6 8 A Glance Backward 

shadow of the old Tomlinson bridge 
controversy darkens the page; that 
controversy which brought into such 
delightful play, the wit and satire of 
Editor Pratt of the Journal and Cour- 
ier, and prepared him for even great- 
er flights of originality, when the mo- 
mentous question faced the good peo- 
ple of the city, whether to pull down 
or leave standing that noble pile, the 
old state house, which at one time 
housed the general assembly of Con- 
necticut, and which at all times made 
poets of the emotional and sentiment- 
al, when "bathed in the soft rays of 
the moon." The younger people of 
the present generation view the con- 
troversy over the widening of "the 
cut" as the most maddening of all con- 
ceivable disagreements, but it is not 
"a two spot," as Devery would say, 
compared with the mighty clashes 
which marked the progress of the 
earlier controversies. In time the city, 
town and school governments were 



A Glance Backward 6 9 

consolidated, though not even yet com- 
pletely so, the rakish Tomlinson's 
bridge, Avlth its perforated cover, was 
taken away, and the walls of the state 
house fell to the click of the multi- 
tudinous camera. Well may it be 
said, that all things come to him who 
waits, but to be without a controversy 
on its ample hands would be to ask 
New Haven to live its life without the 
New Haven temperament. 



It is characteristic of New Haven 
to talk things over before agreeing to 
a given form of action, and, upon the 
whole, it is not such a bad trait, in 
spite of those, who would have action 
quickly taken, for no better reason 
than that they are prepared to act. 
The habit may be traced back to the 
old town meeting, the confusion of 
which, not to mention the fine bursts 
of oratory, led Judge Simeon E. Bald- 
win to labor in season and out of sea- 



7 A Glance Backward 

son to destroy. I have had a feeling, 
for a good many years, that the old 
town meeting had its virtues, and if I 
would let him do so, Mr. Sperry would 
convince me, that, when consolidation 
took place, it should have been on a 
town, and not a city basis. It has been 
my observation that a free form of gov- 
ernment begets an uncontrollable de- 
sire to speechify. The city animal, who 
is a king, feels it his right, as it is, to 
know what is intended, when a certain 
enterprise is undertaken. He is not so 
suspicious as he is curious, and his 
curiosity takes the form of asking 
questions in open meeting, which, when 
satisfactorily answered, gives him an 
excuse for retreating from the battle. 
We shall all have to admit, as a les- 
son of human experience, that sup- 
pression of the right of free speech 
would be a calamity, just as license of 
speech, which carries with it the right 
to speak as long as one's wind holds 
out, would be dreadful, but in between 



A Glance Backward 11 

these two extremes is to be found a 
mean, which can be put to a good use, 
regardless of whether good sense is at 
all times expressed or not. I do not 
know as I can recall an instance, 
where New Haven has been injured by 
a first-class controversial shindy. 
Many of them have been irksome and 
irritating, such as that over the pro- 
posed act of consolidation, but viewed 
in the retrospect, some measure of ad- 
vantage can be found in each. 



I remember how mad I was at Tilton 
E. Doolittle, the efficient state's attorney 
for so many years, when he met the 
endeavors of myself and friends, to 
place the bust of Harry Lewis in front 
of the county court house, where to 
this day the foundation lies under the 
flag stones, with an injunction, which 
was heard before the county commis- 
sioners, but it was a good thing, for 
the bust is better sited, where it is 



7 2 A Glance Backivard 

on East Rock park. It was at this 
hearing' that Judge Henry Stoddard 
perpetrated his best bon mot, accord- 
ing to my judgment. He appeared for 
Mr. Doolittle, and, among other objec- 
tions, offered the one, that, in a mat- 
ter of this importance, action should 
not be taken, until it had been thor- 
oughly discussed in the newspapers. 
County Commissioner Dunham, with 
an amused expression upon his face, 
remarked that The Register had had 
considerable to say upon the subject, 
and inquired of Mr. Stoddard if he did 
not read The Register. He replied that 
he did, and then, with a twinkle in his 
keen eyes, said sharply: "I do not 
debauch myself with it." It is not al- 
ways pleasant to be thus opposed in 
undertakings, which have received our 
formal approval, but the fact is, that 
there is so much sense lying around 
loose in this community, that no one 
has a mortgage upon it, which a con- 
troversy more often than not dis- 



A Glance Backward ts 

closes. So the conclusion is almost 
irresistible with me, that the town of 
Derby was wise, when in seeking all of 
the advantages of a modern charter, it 
reserved the right to its citizens to dis- 
cuss, after the good old town meeting 
practice, the appropriations for the en- 
suing year. I have no fear whatever 
of the man with an idea, provided he 
is given an opportunity to express it. 
The fellow I fear is the man with an 
idea, who is forbidden to express it, 
and who, in consequence, turns into a 
stick of dynamite. The wisdom of the 
authorities of the city of New Haven 
is best shown in their attitude to- 
wards those, bursting with cures for 
every known evil, who use the Green 
for their platform. To leave them be 
is a guarantee of peace; to hustle them 
off the premises is to encourage the 
violation of the law of peaceful con- 
duct. 



7 4 A Glance Backward 



XI 

It takes a long time for a city to 
realize that it is a city, and that in 
consequence of its larger growth it 
must accommodate itself to certain de- 
mands of a metropolitan character. It 
is only twelve years ago that the com- 
munity had settled down into the com- 
fortable philosophy that it had left 
provincialism behind, and was in a 
condition to sit back in the rocking 
chair of life and let the other smaller 
towns sit up and wonder at it, in a 
spirit of emulation. I had gone west 
upon a private errand, and as there 
was no especial hurry in reaching my 
destination, I traveled nights and visit- 
ed western towns of every sort by day. 
If I remember correctly, it took three 
weeks for me to cross the continent by 
way of the Northern Pacific railroad. 
At Spokane Falls, in the state of 



A Glance Backward 



75 



Washington, I unexpectedly ran across 
a classmate whom I had not seen for 
years, and whose name I had forgot- 
ten, an embarrassment which was soon 
removed by his invitation to visit his 
club, where I assumed he would have 
to register me on the visitors' books 
preceding his. That is just what oc- 
curred, and so with the old familiarity 
re-established we took in the town. An 
easterner by birth, he had been attract- 
ed west by the chance of making a for- 
tune, and was at the time interested in 
the development of that city by means 
of the trolley. As I studied the path 
of progress, which led into the farther- 
most sections of the city, marked by 
newly erected houses and stores, and 
came finally to the end of the line, 
where preparations were a-making for 
the sale of desirable lots for homes, I 
was of course struck hard by the power 
of the trolley to distribute, to refine 
and to educate. A thousand ideas 
went through my mind with the rapid- 



16 A Glance Backward 

ity of a Galling gun fire. I saw the 
tenement house problem solved, social 
life made more attractive and uplift- 
ing, and the horrors of congestion dis- 
appear, I was eager to return home, 
and through the columns of The Reg- 
ister tell the story of progress to be 
had for the installation of electric 
power and the abandonment of horses. 
In the mind's eye, New Haven spread 
itself in an hour over the fields, which 
lie to the north, east, south and west. 
It was then, I suspect, that a greater 
New Haven took root, an idea which 
I cannot rid myself of even to gratify 
my good friends of West Haven, who 
have told me, in so many polite ways, 
that they wish I would mind my own 
business. 



However that may be, the fact 
is that upon my return the edi- 
torial wheels began to move with a 
rapidity which startled me. Rodman, 



A Glance Backward '^'^ 

in the news department, and Morgan, 
in the business department, joined in 
the gentle conspiracy with an enthusi- 
asm which read "money or your life" 
for the opposition. Column after col- 
umn were printed setting forth the ad- 
vantages of electricity, and "rapid 
transit" was a heading for editorial 
use which was never distributed by the 
typesetters. It was at this point in 
the game of stimulating New Haven 
that the rocking chair fleet began to 
stir in their complacency. The sub- 
ject of rapid transit "got on to their 
nerves." and they began to send repre- 
sentatives to the office to restrain the 
madness. All the imaginary horrors to 
come in the wake of the trolley were 
pictured With^the exaggeration of fright. 
One eminent citizen, who had known 
my father intimately, appealed to his 
memory, and begged of me to save 
New Haven from the clutches of the 
devil, to whom he likened the trolley, 
as he had seen it on his travels. I 



18 A Glance Bachivard 

lost the acquaintance of Hoadley B. 
Ives, who was the president of the 
Fair Haven & Westville Horse Rail- 
road company, and of some of the di- 
rectors, who shrank from the contem- 
plation of expensive motors, heavier 
rails and modern cars. Except with 
the great mass of people, who had al- 
ready begun to smell the clean odors 
of the country and feel the cool 
breezes of the sound, and were eager 
for both, we were the victims of an 
oppressive unpopularity. Intoxicated 
with the folly we had deliberately sat- 
urated ourselves with, we laid hands 
upon young Mr. Kelsey of the West 
Haven road, and flashed before his 
eyes the Aladdin's lamp we had con- 
structed with such pains and thought. 
He looked into the subject, thought 
about it, had his doubts, rid himself 
of them, tackled it again, and finally 
announced his intention of equipping 
the road with electricity. It was a 
legitimate triumph, and we were justi- 



A Glance Backward 79 

filed in patiently and confidently await- 
ing the awakening of the Fair Haven 
& Westville, though as a matter of his- 
tory its management did not realize 
the importance of the change in mo- 
tive power until the State Street Rail- 
road company threatened to gobble up 
all of the remaining empty streets. 
Now the logical beneficiary of all this 
enthusiasm and joint work, the New 
York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 
road company, is in possession, and to 
it we must turn for the service which 
has become a necessity of our lives. 
* * * 

The years previous and subsequent to 
this introduction of horselessness, in 
the conduct of the surface traffic busi- 
ness, were busy with the preliminaries 
of what was destined to be a revolu- 
tioned local life. The old saying that it 
never rains but it pours, from the scan- 
dalous untruth of which I have never 
recovered, had at least an inning of vin- 
dication then, and nowhere was it ever 



8 A Glmice Backward 

more keenly felt than in the newspaper 
offices of the city, state and nation. As 
one looks back over the past 25 years, 
and, with more or less patience, makes 
mental notes of the changes in our 
methods of life, as well as of the aban- 
donment of ideas and practices, to 
which our fathers held with the ten- 
acity of their day and generation, he 
realizes, as he never did before, the 
mighty achievements of which days 
multiplied into months and years, are 
capable. It was more than that number 
of years ago to be sure, that Mr. Frost 
clung with such grit and determination 
to the telephone as an approaching 
commercial necessity, while the skep- 
tical men of affairs regarded him with 
apprehension and withheld their sup- 
port. His row could not have been a 
harder one to hoe, had he been con- 
cerned with the flying machine, which 
is yet to come. And yet it has been 
within the 25 years, to which I am refer- 
ring, that his judgment has received its 



A Glance Backward si 

vindication, and the community lias 
reaped tiie advantages of his better 
foresight. His determination and en- 
thusiasm finds its parallel in the char- 
acter of Cornelius S. Bushnell, who 
would not cease from his advocacy of 
the Monitor, until the federal govern- 
ment, fascinated by his faith in the 
genius of his friend, reluctantly agreed, 
under preposterous conditions, to test 
the turreted monster of Hampton 
Roads. And while Frost was clinging to 
his ideals, and preparing a means of 
connecting the newspaper offices of the 
world, among other workshops, with 
the news centers of civilization. Hoe 
was at work upon a press that has 
since changed completely the art of 
making a newspaper. Merganthaler was 
restless with his visions of typesetting 
by machinery; the various wizards of 
the patent office were pleading in be- 
half of machines, which were to dis- 
pense with pencils and pens as imple- 
ments of copy manufacture; dreamers 



8 2 A Glance Backward 

were predicting the dawn of the auto- 
mobile; wireless telegraphy was about 
to speak from the tip of a disconnect- 
ed mast, with space for its conduit; the 
commercial instinct was preparing to ap- 
ply upon a larger and more stupendous 
scale the principle of the huxter shop of 
our childhood; men were ceasing to 
think in dollars and had already begun 
to whisper in the mighty language of 
millions; the magician of New Jersey 
was making promises that the human 
voice should be preserved for the en- 
joyment and edification of posterity; 
still others, sleepless in the presence of 
new and ever new discoveries in the 
laws of mechanics, were successfully 
plotting to let music flow as gracefully 
from flying feet as it had ever flowed 
from human fingers; the circle of hu- 
man association was to be narrowed 
until the past was to become the pres- 
ent in enjoyment, and the future the 
one lazy laggard. 

Twenty-five years have seen the 
accomplishment of these dreams 



A Glance Backward 8 3 

and fantasies, and nothing is 
impossible longer; the hitherto unat- 
tainable has been brought within the 
possible grasp of the man of faith, 
even to the removal of the scriptural 
mountain. Each and every one of these 
triumphs of mind over matter has af- 
fected the outlook, the temperament, 
the sensitiveness and the performance 
of the newspapers equipped with mod- 
ern tools and modern instruments. It 
is no longer enough to know, it is neces- 
sary to feel the power of publicity and 
properly direct it. The genius of the age 
is directed towards the establishment 
of the open book theory of life in mat- 
ters social and political, as it is direct- 
ed towards the establishment of the 
open-door theory of intercommunica- 
tion in matters commercial and diplo- 
matic. We are making towards a 
mighty goal indeed, and at a pace that 
takes the breath away, and almost sug- 
gests the need for a speed limit upon 
life itself, lest the gains made through 
increased facilities may be sacrificed by 
the losses imposed through tired nerves 
and too much life. 
6 



8 4 A Glance Backward 



XII 

It is unquestionably true that a 
sense of humor is important in all avo- 
cations, and to that extent it is per- 
haps a mere recognition of its force to 
declare that a powerful exhorter, an 
astute lawyer or a skilled physician 
must be possessed of it to do the work 
that is required of him, while preserv- 
ing that youthfulness in spirit, without 
which the blood dries up and the ener- 
gies weaken, and men actually become 
old from the point of view of further 
usefulness. In the case of the news- 
paper worker a sense of humor is an 
essential instrument of achievement. 
To see suddenly the humorous, or even 
ridiculous side of an appeal to his help, 
or a cunning compliment paid his abil- 
ity, or, better yet, a gentle conspiracy 
to catch him in the toils of the other 
fellow's needs, is, in each case, to esti- 



A Glance Backivard 8 5 

mate quickly the line of action to take, 
without in the least detracting from 
the seriousness of the conference. The 
average person has an exaggerated im- 
pression of a newspaper ofRce and of 
the people who inhabit it. To the one 
is attributed, perhaps properly enough, 
a larger power for good and evil; to the 
other an ability which, except in rare 
instances, they do not possess. It is 
this attitude of mind which makes the 
average visitor to the editorial rooms 
embarrassed before he has reached the 
inner sanctum. Conscious of the im- 
portance to him of his errand, he 
reaches with difficulty the matter in 
which he is interested, and begins its 
statement long after it has lodged in 
the other's mind. It is the funniest 
thing in the world how the most cau- 
tious man will reveal the object of his 
visit unintentionally, if he happens to 
have an axe to grind. If it is a com- 
munication, which he desires to have 
printed, though too often indisposed to 



8 6 A Glance Backward 

bear the responsibility for it, he dis- 
avows any personal interest in its sub- 
ject, and gives the most amusing' as- 
surances of the necessary carelessness 
employed in its preparation. All this 
is, of course, listened to with courtesy, 
while the smile is suppressed which is 
provoked by the recollection of friend- 
ships ruined by the use of the editorial 
blue pencil, or the enlistment of the 
waste basket. I do not say that under 
the same circumstances I should not 
act in exactly the same way, since I 
recognize the same laws at work when- 
ever the human animal is tested, but 
the fact is that there is much fun to be 
had at the expense of the volunteer 
reformer, who is unwilling to drive 
steadily and boldly at the evil com- 
plained of over his own signature, and 
without diplomatically expressed warn- 
ings that the context is not to be 
touched. But he is not in the running 
with the visitor, whose communication 
is accepted and sent to the composing 



A Glance Backward s? 

room without change of word or 
phrase, who calls the day fol- 
lowing in an indignant frame of mind 
to protest at the liberties taken with 
his copy. These delicious souls are only 
to be confronted with their carefully 
preserved MSS., and "handed out" a 
few well browned phrases, which have 
done duty upon many another similar 
occasion. After twenty-five years' ex- 
perience I cannot understand why men 
should either shrink from fighting for 
their convictions over their own signa- 
ture, or seek later, when the types 
have removed all life from their pencil 
tracings to unload the responsibility 
upon the poor editor, who has troubles 
of his own every hour of the day, or 
rather would have, should he be so 
careless as to leave his sense of humor 
at home, where, it was once said, a 
well known, but not particularly bril- 
liant metropolitan editor, invariably 
left his conscience. 



8 8 A Glance Backward 

I remember a good many years ago 
that a proposed constitutional amend- 
ment was under legislative considera- 
tion, providing for the prohibition of 
the liquor traffic. The controversy grew 
hot, and then hotter. The various so- 
cieties and organizations in the state, 
which can be counted upon to meet 
and resolve when the morals of the 
rest of us are undergoing treatment, 
were almost constantly in session, 
either bombarding the members of the 
general assembly with literature, or 
preparing fresh means of continuing 
the attack. The straight and narrow 
path was crowded with good and earn- 
est people, while the bylanes and hill- 
sides, which held the unregenerate, 
were bursting with their plenty. The 
fusilade was superb in its brilliancy, 
and well rounded phrases did the be- 
wildering duty of Chinese day fire- 
works. It was simply impossible for 
one to be a neutral, who was in a posi- 
tion to be spotted by one of the many 



A Glance Backward so 

detectives engaged on either side. The 
New Haven chamber of commerce had 
held one of its annual dinners, which 
were always a source of wonder to 
"Ike" Bromley, who could not under- 
stand what they were the terminals 
and interruptions of. One of the older 
members was unfortunately stricken 
with an acute attack of indigestion, 
and was borne from the banqueting 
hall. So keen was the controversy 
over the necessity of a prohibition 
clause in the state constitution that 
the poor man's misfortune was hit 
upon as a Providential demonstration 
of the evil of drinking in all of its 
forms. The Register, under my direc- 
tion, got into the scrimmage and op- 
posed the proposed amendment to the 
constitution, drawing upon the familiar 
arguments, which can always be effec- 
tively used, v/hen it is proposed to im- 
pose upon the majority the undemon- 
strated views of the minority. We 
brought the experience of the state of 



9 A Glmice Backivai^d 

Maine to Connecticut, and paraded it 
around for the edification and enlight- 
enment of the ignorant, dressing it, 
metaphorically, one day in flaming red 
and the next day in equally showy and 
suggestive tints. It was a merry fight, 
and drew me and The Register to the 
attention of a citizen who was inter- 
ested in the defeat of the movement. 
The result was a call, in the course of 
which we were jointly congratulated 
upon the brightness of the light which 
burned within us. Impressed, of 
course, we were, but the incident would 
have been disposed of quickly had the 
suggestion not been made that, having 
struck the right trail, we were entitled 
to substantial encouragement; that the 
suggestion would not have been made 
had we not already plunged with such 
splendid recklessness into the thick of 
the struggle, indifferent to ourselves, 
mindful only of the cause of truth. It 
was the most amusing ten minutes that 
I can recall, ending as they did with 



A Glance Bachward 91 

the assurance from me that in matters 
of that character we lived only to do 
good to others, not to profit ourselves 
at the expense of either the thought- 
less or the vicious. I may be mistaken 
about it, but I have always felt indebt- 
ed to whatever sense of humor God 
gave me for my escape from that in- 
terview, untouched by the humiliation 
that it is not pleasant to be taken for 
that kind of a chap, and unmoved in 
my former estimate of the innocent 
tempter, whom I continued to like in 
the same old way as long as he lived. 
In fact, he lived long enough for us 
to have a hearty laugh over the inter- 
view, and for me to become absolutely 
convinced that he thought he was doing 
just the right thing, when he sought to 
quicken both my conscience and my 
purse. 



9 3 A Glance Backward 



XIII 

It would be very much more con- 
vincing if I could adorn all of these 
short tales of reminiscence with the in- 
troduction of names and dates, but as 
many of the actors in them are yet 
alive, I am obliged to refrain in some 
instances. There are many people who 
will immediately recall the presidential 
campaign of 1884, in which the leading 
candidates were that composed and 
steadfast citizen of New York, Grover 
Cleveland, and that brilliant and dash- 
ing political leader, James G. Blaine. 
Political interest ran high here in this 
city, and throughout the state, for it 
was impossible for a man of convic- 
tions to give his support to either with- 
out feeling deeply the outcome. The 
combatants were better mannered I 
think than was the case in a genera- 
tion earlier, but disputes were fre- 



A Glance Backward 93 

quent, wherever men gathered, and, 
though nothing was settled by the heat- 
ed controversies, all felt better for the 
expression of their views. The club of 
which I was a member was a purely- 
social organization, and political dis- 
cussions were not in good form, but in 
the heat of that campaign, the unwrit- 
ten laws of the club were ignored, and 
many were the dashes made for the 
liberty of free speech. The republican 
members, ordinarily fierce enough in 
their defense of the principles of their 
party, were made more so by the atti- 
tude of the mugwumps, who were then, 
in the hands of the delighted democrats, 
the kind of potter's clay the gold demo- 
crats were, in the hands of the repub- 
licans, 12 years later. One afternoon the 
quiet and peace of the assembly were 
disturbed by a disagreement between 
men of opposing political faiths, and in- 
to it I was drawn before I realized it, 
and before my sense of humor had be- 
come sufficiently aroused to restrain me. 



9 4 A Glance Bachiuard 

Suddenly a member, a business man of 
first-rate standing', who had .hjitherto re- 
frained from participating in these will- 
o'-tTie-wisp struggles for partisan su- 
premacy, made a comment upon the un- 
deserving political character of Mr. 
Cleveland, and upon the stinging defeat 
that awaJited him, justly. I was off in 
a jiffy, at the rate of a mile a minute. 
Mentally I never traveled so fast in my 
life, and I took hurdles of thought, and 
prediction, as easily as ever did the 
most daring rider on the turf. I cannot 
recall the enthusiastic things I said, nor 
tlie arguments I drew upon to over- 
whelm my inoffensive friend; I was af- 
ter his scalp, and intended to walk the 
town with it dangling from my war belt, 
and would peirhaps have reached out for 
it, had not my sense of humor put in a 
belated appearance, and whispered need- 
ed counsel in my elongated ear. I at 
once realized the ridiculousness of the 
scene, and laughingly said, that if my 
chief was elected the week following, I 



A Glance Backward 9 8 

would revenge myself upon my oppon- 
ent by painting his house red, to which 
he gave good natured consent, provided 
he could enjoy the same privilege under 
adverse conditions. I agreed, and we 
broke even, to await the verdict of the 
polls. After the two or three days of 
suspense were over, which followed the 
uncertain voice of New York, at the 
suggestion of Fred Gilbert, who was 
then in business on Chapel street, he 
and George Wykes, then a resident of 
the city, and a gentleman at present 
at the head of an important public ser- 
vice corporation, accompanied me to 
Gilbert's store, where we mixed a pot of 
red paint and proceeded to my friend's 
house. Different members of the party 
were stationed to watch out for police- 
men, while I painted the plateglass win- 
dow of the front door, and stole away 
quietly into the darkness of the night. 
Two days following, the Palladium, sick 
and sore with the wounds of battle, told 
in flaming headlines the story of the 



9 6 A Glance Backivard 

outrage that ihad been perpetrated up- 
on one of the leading' republican citi- 
zens of the town, and editorially called 
upon the negligent police department to 
investigate the case, and arrest the 
miscreants, regardless of the political 
station and social prestige they might 
represent. Not to be outdone in virtuous 
indignation, that a gentleman should 
have had his residence thus despoiled 
of its original beauty, the news columns 
of The Register boiled over, and edi- 
torially the demand of the Palladium 
v/as supported with becoming non-par- 
tisan ardor. I was congratulated upon 
all sides for my sense of fair play, but 
was not so far misled as to fail to keep 
an eye upon my friend, who finally ad- 
mitted that the pace was too hot a one 
to keep up and suggested that we let 
the matter drop, which we did. Four 
years later fearing a return visit, up- 
on the election of Mr. Harrison, I had 
my own house posted, and arrange- 
ments completed, at police headquar- 



A Glance Backward ^^ 

ters, to hold anyone caught "ruining" 
my property, time having been given 
him to do so, but the dastardly at- 
tempt was not made. 



It was a certain number of years 
ago that the leadership of the local 
democracy was under lively consider- 
ation. Those who belonged to the re- 
form wing, and wished new primary 
rules adopted, and a lot of other things 
done, which would restore to the peo- 
ple the liberties, which had been 
trampled under foot, were as hotly 
met by those in control. Every argu- 
ment that was known to the posses- 
sion of power was hurled defiantly at 
the heads of those, who manufactured 
equally impressive arguments from 
their desire to be the power. The 
democraticnewspaperstooksides in the 
contest, and the republican newspapers 
did all they could to fan the more or 
less characteristic shindy, by first dep- 



9 8 A Glance Bacfcward 

recating it, and then counselling the 
voice of the majority. The devil him- 
self could not have been more delib- 
erate in the mischief that was made in 
consequence. In time the reformers 
found their way into the state con- 
vention, where they scored a victory, 
and brought hom.e with them the con- 
cession of representation in that body, 
somewhat in accordance with the 
theory of population. The point then 
was how to apportion the increased 
representation. That had to be dis- 
cussed pro and con, one side demand- 
ing that the town convention be left 
to determine the matter, the other side 
demanding that the representation be 
according to wards. Without dwell- 
ing further upon that, I want to recall 
a trick that was played, by the dom- 
inant faction, upon the minority at a 
subsequent town convention, which 
had to do with the settlement of it. It 
was so cleverly done that we were all 
deceived, and for a time it looked as 



A Glance Backiuard »» 

if a great moral victory had been won, 
and that in the future the path of pol- 
itics would be the primrose path of 
open dealing and no marked cards. It 
v/as agreed by the leaders of the dom- 
inant faction, which had carried the 
primaries, that a motion should be 
made in the town convention, called 
to elect delegates to the state conven- 
tion, directing the chairman to appoint 
a committee of five to withdraw and 
report a state delegation of 20 odd for 
affirmation. Fearful lest this motion 
unopposed might open up the larger 
question of ward supremacy, the ad- 
ditional agreement was made that this 
original motion should be opposed by 
the man who was supposed, as in fact 
he was, to be an intimate coworker. It 
was his part to oppose the motion for 
a committee of five, and to oppose it 
in a personal and disagreeable way, 
thus establishing the belief that the 
machine had fallen of its own weight 
and was now a mass of rubbish, for 
7 



10 A Glance Backward 

the minority opposition to pick up and 
make whole again. It was argued by 
this detailed belligerent, that this was 
a time for the practice of larger pow- 
ers than were comprehended in a sus- 
picious committee of five; that the 
people of New Haven would no longer 
stand for arbitrary ring rule; that he 
and his friends were ready to meet 
the issue now; that he was the prop- 
erty of no man nor set of men. In its 
way it was fine and convincing, and 
it fooled those of us in the galleries, as 
well as it did those composing the 
minority upon the floor of the con- 
vention. The amendment was offered 
providing for a committee of nine, the 
names to compose which were already 
in the hands of the chairman. A run- 
ning debate followed, and in view of 
the obstinate refusal of the original 
mover to accept the amendment, a 
vote was necessary and the amend- 
ment was carried by an overwhelming 
majority. Cheers followed the an- 



A Glance Backward i o i 

nouncement, the chair appointed the 
committee of nine originally agreed 
upon, a report was made and accept- 
ed, and the convention adjourned con- 
vinced, as were the morning papers, 
that at last the machine had been 
broken and that a new order of things 
v/as about to dawn in the regenerated 
city of New Haven. The state press 
took up the refrain, and to the four 
corners of good and credulous old Con- 
necticut went the information of an- 
other brand snatched from the burn- 
ing. Being a trifle suspicious, by na- 
ture perhaps, and being a beneficiary 
of the report of the committee of nine, 
I later made confidential inquiries, and 
found that again had the keen, expe- 
rienced wit of the practical politician 
triumphed over his enemies. It was 
not the time for explanations upon 
anybody's part. It was a time to go 
off and sit quietly down, in order to 
meditate intelligently upon the game 
of politics, how it is played by those, 



102 A Glance Bachiuard 

who know every turn in it, and what 
steps were necessary to get control of 
it from a slightly higher point of view. 
"All is not gold that glitters." 

These are but two or three incidents 
in a busy life of twenty-five years, of 
no especial importance except so far 
as they did throw light upon certain 
phases of human nature, and except 
so far as they can throw light now up- 
on the varied resources of mankind, 
when at play, or at work along given 
lines. It is not to be concluded from 
them that the playing of men, though 
more or less silly, is something to be 
stoutly resisted and uprooted, in order 
that personal dignity may grow to be 
as heavy as lead, which it usually 
does under such circumstances; it is 
not to be inferred that because one 
neat trick was played upon the unsus- 
pecting voters of New Haven by prac- 
tical politicians, they are unable or un- 
willing to play the game generally, in 
a strictly straight way. I have refer- 



A Glance Backivard los 

red to them, because they are a part 
of the newspaperman's education, and 
they could be duplicated in a thousand 
ways, until more or less of the inside 
history of the city was written, to the 
friendly exploitation of every known 
avocation, for no greater mistake can 
be made, in this naturally beautiful 
world of ours, than to conclude, for 
any reason whatever, that one man 
fundamentally differs from another, 
because he happens to be of a different 
political, religious or social faith. Men 
are pretty much the same every where, 
and to be satisfied with an under- 
standing of him, from his serious side 
alone, is to become good material for 
the adventurer to work upon, while to 
study him, from the playful side alone, 
is to miss altogether the good there is 
in ninety-nine men out of a hundred. 
It takes as many touches to make a 
man as it does to make a picture, and 
therefore all sides of him are import- 
ant in the translation or interpretation. 



10 4 A Glance Backward 



XIV 

One of the most agreeable incidents 
of a quarter of a century spent in the 
editorial chair of a daily newspaper 
is the acquaintanceship formed among 
men devoted to the same performance. 
I am not prepared to say that there 
is a sort of Masonic relationship hover- 
ing over the association of men who 
are thus concerned with the same ob- 
ject in life, but it is true that news- 
papermen can fraternize more quickly 
and stay gathered longer than any 
class of men I have ever met, ex- 
changing experiences and comparing 
notes of adventure, with ever increas- 
ing spontaneity, and, in ninety-nine 
cases out of a hundred, without the 
slightest trace of cynicism. It would 
appear as if things were always on the 
bloom, and the unattainable a source 
of ceaseless confidence. A newspaper- 



A Glance Backward los 

man never admits that the quest for 
the golden fleece of a more perfect 
revelation of human nature is more 
than just begun, and consequently with 
each day's beginning opens up the 
probability of real knowledge being 
grasped firmly in the right hand, after 
the style of Ajax defying the lightning. 
And with serious discussion comes the 
interruption of it with witty or satiri- 
cal comment, when in a moment all is 
of that kind of intellectual confusion 
which makes for mental refreshment 
and greater physical powers. 



I remember the national democratic 
convention which was held at Chicago 
in 1892. to which I happened to be a 
delegate. There was a choice gather- 
ing there of old and young newspaper 
writers, whose imaginations had been 
stirred to the quick by the assaults 
made upon Grover Cleveland by the 
New York Sun, and the various other 



106 A Glance Backward 

newspapers throughout the country, 
which willingly followed in its lead, 
though with poorer excuse perhaps. To 
mention Watterson of the Louisville 
Courier-Journal, Amos Cummings, then 
in touch with the New York Sun, Mc- 
Kelway of the Brooklyn Eagle, Brom- 
ley of the New York Tribune, and a 
score of others, from whose belts hung 
scalps telling of many an encounter in 
the battle of life, is enough to give a 
good im.pression of the talent on duty 
there. Bromley stood in a group of 
them one morning, watching, with a 
deeper look of interest and excitement 
than usual on his handsome features, 
the Tammany delegation which had 
just arrived, and was marching by the 
Auditorium behind its brass band, every 
man with a silk hat upon his head. I 
sat in my window of the hotel, facing 
the street, bent upon the same enter- 
tainment. I spied Mr. Bromley and 
called to him to come up. As he paid 
not the slightest attention to me I 



A Glance Backiuard loi 

threw a piece of a cracker at him, 
which hit him, as I intended it should, 
on the liead. He turned impatiently, 
looked up and then with a significant 
gesture to Mr. Watterson came to my 
room. "What did you do that for?" 
he immediately asked. I replied that 
it was hot and stuffy on the sidewalk, 
and he could see just as well and more 
comfortably from my window seat. Be- 
sides, I added, processions were as 
common as mud heaps in a country 
roadway, and that if he intended to 
watch them all, I should send word to 
the Tribune ofRce and have him re- 
called, for the sake of the reputation 
of a great newspaper and a great 
newspaper correspondent; that I was 
really playing the part of a solicitous 
friend, for whom I cared more than I 
did for myself. "Very likely," he re- 
plied, somewhat mollified by my assur- 
ances, "but you have thrown the bet to 
Watterson." "What bet?" said I, inno- 
cently. "I should have won if you had 



10 8 A Glance Backivard 

not made me turn away. I wagered 
Watterson that there was not an 
American in the crowd, and the mo- 
ment I turned my head he cried out 
'There he goes.' " 



The day preceding the nomination of 
Grover Cleveland for President for the 
third time, at 6 o'clock in the morning, 
was one of intense excitement. The 
New York delegation had made its re- 
markable statement, that Mr. Cleve- 
land could not carry the electoral vote 
of his own state. The states which 
Mr. Whitney and Mr. Bissell had con- 
verted at great pains were thrown into 
a panic, the wires were hot between 
Chicago and Woolfert's Roost, the 
Connecticut delegation continued to 
•feel the irritation of the unit rule, 
which had been adopted after a long 
wrangle, brass bands were playing, 
everybody felt the tension of the hour 
and predicted the outcome very much 



A Glance Backward i o 9 

as he thought it should be. If there 
ever was a political Topsyturveytown 
it reigned with fine noise and hustle 
during the hours between the after- 
noon adjournment and the hour set for 
the evening session. Many of the news- 
papermen were fraternizing in a quiet 
corner, unmoved by the clamor and 
the racket, except to remark upon it 
with lofty contempt. It is only in ac- 
tion, that the newspaperman discloses 
the mettle of which he is made, and 
then it is a racer who can keep pace 
and finish with him. In the group to 
which I refer was Mr. Bromley, Amos 
Cummings, Paul Dana, afterwards for 
a short time his distinguished father's 
successor, and some old campaigners, 
friends of Mr. Bromley. It was easy 
to see that the latter was in a mis- 
chievous mood, and many were the at- 
tempts he made to throw the company 
into confusion. A less determined joker 
would have abandoned the scent long 
before, but with Bromley to plan was 



110 A Glance Backiuard 

to execute. Finally his turn came. He 
turned blandly to Paul Dana, who 
might in imagination have been ab- 
sorbed with the depressing fact that 
Cleveland's nomination was near at 
hand, in spite of the sweeping opposi- 
tion of the Sun, under the direction of 
his father, and suddenly put to him 
this question, as if it were the most 
commonplace inquiry he could think 
of: "Paul what will your Dad say to- 
morrow in the Sun, when he hears to- 
night of the renomination of the old 
man?" 

Mr. Dana grunted and ignored 
the question. Bromley then turned to 
Amos Cummings and put the same 
question to him, but this time with 
just the suggestion of a twinkle in his 
black eyes. Cummings glanced at 
young Dana just a moment, and then 
with a wink replied: "Why he'll dodge 
Cleveland and support Stevenson and a 

'no-force bill' like H ." As this was 

exactly what happened, it makes the 



A Glance BacJcward 1 1 1 

reminiscence interesting, especially 
when I recall the quiet chuckle of Mr. 
Bromley, who, several hour later, at 4 
a. m., when Bourke Cockran made that 
wonderful speech of brilliant rhetoric 
and physical endurance, sat at his seat 
among the correspondents transfixed 
with amazement, and waved me aside 
when I soug-ht to get his judgment as 
to its possible effect upon the excited 
convention. That was the hour of ac- 
tion, and he only had thoughts for the 
turn in the battle, which he was 
watching as a cat would watch a 
mouse. Those who recall his corres- 
pondence the morning after in the Tri- 
bune, over the familiar signature "I. 
H. B." can testify how little escaped 
those trained eyes and ears. His was 
the perfect pen picture of a scene that 
in some respects has no parallel in the 
history of the country. 



113 A Glance Backward 



XV 

My friends have for many years, 
with pardonable curiosity, sought to 
learn more of my military career than 
history (unappreciative history) has 
written it. I refuse to hide behind the 
modesty, which becomes a soldier, who 
left the sidewalk, by the favor of Gov- 
ernor Waller, to become a mounted 
colonel. My record is an open book, 
and if my body bears no tell-tale scars 
of bloody conflict, it is because there 
are more ways than one to elude the 
vigilant enemy, on the one hand, and 
because, on the other hand, my scars 
were those of the head rather than 
those of the chest. I do, however, re- 
call one very amusing experience at 
Camp Waller, whither I had gone 
from motives of duty, and not from 
motives of a belligerent character. No 
sooner had Mr. Waller been elected to 
the governorship, than, contrary to 



A Glance Backward 1 1 3 

the wishes of many of the older war 
horses of the democratic party, he 
reached the conclusion that the gen- 
erals at least should be taken from 
among those who had seen service in 
the war of the rebellion. He selected 
for his adjutant general, Darius N. 
Couch of Norwalk, who brought to the 
duties of his new position a West 
Point preparation, which had been 
ripened and expanded by a full course 
in the civil war. He wore the uniform 
of major general, to which his rank in 
the army of the United States entitled 
him, and if its shabbiness carried to 
others the conviction it carried to me, 
that ours was to be easy military ser- 
vice, the deception was common in its 
impositions. I realize that a military 
hero cannot be made out of hand, and 
that Governor Waller's fine aggrega- 
tion had no ambition to make history, 
but if any one harbors the illusion or 
delusion that General Crouch failed to 
find work for the idle staff hands to do, 
this brief story will correct him. 



114 A Glance Bachward 

I was never at home in my splendid 
uniform, though conscious that it was 
a source of joy to the street urchin, and 
the first time I put it on, I became a 
convert to the strict service ideas of 
Brigadier General Steven Smith, who 
did not live, however, to see them for- 
mally adopted. In my fatigue outfit 
I could listen as agreeably and com- 
fortably as the next one to the band 
concerts. It was the capital playing of 
"Wiheeler & Wilson's band, then in 
camp with the Fourth regiment, that 
took me each morning to the left of 
the line, for the enjoyment of the 
beautiful guard mount. One morning 
an orderly approached, saluted — (I 
think I called him Jim, but I have 
forgotten. I did the unsoldierly thing 
anyway) — and announced that Gen- 
eral Couch presented his compliments 
and desired to see me at headquar- 
ters. Not supposing that the peace of 
nations hung upon the quick obedi- 
ence of orders, I directed the orderly 



A Glance Backivard 1 1 s 

to say that I would be up after a 
while, which meant when guard 
mount was over. In a few moments 
he returned, and with a troubled look 
upon his face repeated the message 
he had previously given. I replied 
with some annoyance, that I would be 
up shortly. He turned away reluct- 
antly and disappeared. In five min- 
utes he was back astride of a horse, 
and leading me aside confidentially "ad- 
vised" that the old man was as mad 
as "a wet hen," and that I had better 
see him. My brother officers, ever 
ready to give others the benefit of 
their valuable experience, took the or- 
derly's side, and I dashed for head- 
quarters with all the recklessness of 
Sheridan in his best days. 



I found the general impatiently wait- 
ing my coming, which I innocently at- 
tributed to his age, but to no breach of 
military etiquette on my part. I was 

8 



116 A Gla7ice Backward 

cheerful in my salutation, in an atti- 
tude of mind that might have suggest- 
ed the reunion of two long lost broth- 
ers. He stated that it was necessary 
that Governor Waller should receive 
the packet of letters he held in his 
hand as soon as possible, and had sent 
for me to bear them to him at his office 
in New London. I began to realize the 
impatience of the dear old man, and the 
reasonableness of it, and could have 
fallen upon his neck, with a prayer for 
forgiveness upon my lips, but there 
was nothing in his manifest state of 
mind which would have warranted such 
a performance. Instead, I said quick- 
ly that I should be glad to be of any 
service to the state of Connecticut, hop- 
ing in that way to stir the risibilities 
of the old soldier, and held out my hand 
for the packet. I do not know how he 
appeared to regular soldiers during the 
war, when he looked them in the eye, 
but if he was as terrifying to them as 
he was to me at that moment, they 



A Glance Badcward in 

must have moved lively to execute his 
orders. He mildly asked if it was my 
intention to pay an official visit to Gov- 
ernor Waller in fatigue dress? I sug- 
gested the appropriateness of it, and 
was about to explain the embarrass- 
ment of being alone in the world in 
full dress, when he cut me short with 
a brief order to go and properly attire 
myself. I did so, and when I returned 
for the important packet, I was ready 
for the most exacting inspection. He 
smiled kindly, as if he had taught me a 
lesson, and I started upon my mission, 
which might involve the peace of the 
civilized world. It was all right so long 
as I was in Niantic, but once aboard 
the train, I was the object of much 
comment on the part of the passengers, 
who were not aware of their presence 
near the seat of war. One or two ven- 
tured to inquire if anything was wrong, 
but I had caught the sternness of the 
general's character, and treated them 
with disdain, as if to refer them to the 



118 A Glance Backward 

afternoon papers. Reaching New Lon- 
don I was hailed with delight by the 
newsboys and bootblacks, who prepared 
to escort me to the governor's office, or 
wherever else my warlike errand might 
take me. They did so, and when I ar- 
rived there, I was ready to resign and 
take again to the plough. I, however, 
brushed them aside, and mounted the 
staircase, as mad as General Couch was 
when I sent him word that I would 
come at my leisure. I gave one swift 
look at the governor's office sign, and 
determined to give the door one sound 
beating, which I did. An alarmed voice 
from within cried out: "Come in." I 
entered, expecting to be decorated with 
the order of the iron cross, or some cor- 
responding honor. Instead the governor 
whirled around in his office chair, and 
with a look of good humored surprise 
upon his face, asked: "What, you Col- 
onel? Has war been declared?" 
I replied indignantly. No, but add- 
ed that there would be war of no small 



A Glance Backward 119 

and bloodless character, if he did not 
order a closed carriage, with the cur- 
tains drawn, and take me back to 
camp; that go alone I would not, for I 
should be sure to kill someone on the 
way, and General Couch, too, after I 
returned to quarters. 



120 A Glance Backward 



XYl 

It is not my purpose to continue the 
telling- of things which have happened, 
under one condition or another, during 
25 years of service here. In fact, I will 
promise to make this the last, and I tell 
it only because it was my chance to get 
even with General Couch before the 
week was out. We have together laugh- 
ed over the incident many times since, 
though, until the day he died, I believe 
he never quite concluded that there 
was the making of a soldier in me. I 
knew there wasn't from the first, but 
that did not bother me, as it was not 
the yearning for a title that made me 
abandon the ranks of the civilian, but 
a desire to increase my acquaintance 
throughout the state for practical uses 
here. However that may be, a few days 
after I had been dispatched to New 
London with war papers, an incident 



A Glance Baclnvard 121 

occurred which, as I have intimated, 
gave me the opportunity to pester the 
general a bit. We were sitting about 
headquarters one warm evening, close 
to midnight, enjoying a quiet conversa- 
tion before retiring, when the gi'and 
rounds passed, and provoked a desire 
in some of us to study that feature of 
camp protection. Captain Lathrop of 
the independent company had been the 
officer of the day. He was an excellent 
officer and a disciplinarian of no mean 
merit, and I should have had wit enough 
to know that whatever condition met us 
was probably the right military condi- 
tion, and that the time to offer instruc- 
tions was when some other officer was 
in charge. We had not gone far before 
we were challenged. "Who comes 
there?" rang out upon the midnight air. 
"Friends," was the martial reply. "Ad- 
vance friends, and give the counter- 
sign." With these preliminaries out of 
the way, I proceeded to tell the sentinel 
that the proper challenge was: "Halt. 



122 A Glance Backward 

Who goes there?" a learned disquisi- 
tion upon the science of war which 
my companions allowed was Napoleon- 
ic. Proceeding with due gravity, we in- 
structed a number of sentinels in the 
mysteries of a military challenge. We 
returned to our quarters not dreaming 
that we had upset the dish, and leaving 
entirely out of the calculation the 
thoroughness of Captain Lathrop, who 
never took things for granted, even 
though he had more than once tested 
them. We retired to enjoy a well earn- 
ed rest, with the conviction that, what- 
ever happened, the state was safe from 
assault. 



Captain Lathrop took it into his head 
later to make a slight examination of 
the sentinels, the majority of whom he 
had found were not well drilled in the 
matter of challenges, and discovered, 
of course, that those whom he ex- 
amined were using the wrong form of 



A Glance Backivard 123 

inquiry. A bit piqued, he inquired and 
learned that a group of officers had fol- 
lowed the grand rounds, and described 
the erring one, who had taught them 
with such precision the things they 
ought not to know. Properly indignant 
he reported the occurrence, the official 
history of which reached General 
Couch in due time. At the moment I at- 
tributed to the general the gift of second 
sight, as he promptly sent for me for 
possible information, though I must 
add that he could not believe that I 
was the offender. Not in the remotest 
way adopting the tone of the inquisi- 
tor, he asked if any of us last evening 
had followed the grand rounds, a mild 
off-the-bat question which made me 
scent trouble. I, however, confessed 
that a few of us had done so. Some- 
what surprised, and a little nettled, he 
asked if we had undertaken to instruct 
the guard. I saw then that I was in 
for it, and diplomatically replied that 
it was scarcely our purpose to "in- 



134 A Glance Backward 

struct" the guard. He then brought 
into action his Gatling gun for further 
examination, and fired more questions 
at me than I could have answered in 
a week, but they gave me time to get 
myself together. Whsn he had finished, 
and a guard house look had come into 
his eyes, I ventured the suggestion that 
instruction in the National Guard must 
be very lax. with regard to challenges, 
if anybody, with an officer's cape on, 
could upset in five minutes the work 
of an entire day, week, month or year. 
I admitted that I had undertaken more 
than was cut out for a staff officer, in 
attending to other business than my 
own, but I did not let go of the central 
fact, that I had unwittingly exposed 
the carelessness of company instruc- 
tion, dwelling perhaps upon the great 
part accident had played in the pro- 
gress of the world. He gravely ex- 
pressed his regret, and, as I supposed, 
dropped the matter. My surprise later 
in the day can be imagined when I 



A Glance Backward iss 

learned that the guardsmen had been 
officially warned to study and teach 
harder than ever the duties of a sen- 
tinel. It was a merry evening at head- 
quarters that evening, when I was 
toasted as a military expert and re- 
former of the first water, though the 
merriment did not begin until after 
General Couch had retired. I thought 
it wise to have a friendly setting. I 
learned afterwards that he lay in his 
cot and roared with laughter as he 
heard the story in detail. The next 
morning, and ever after, he showed me 
a tender side of his character, which 
I have never ceased to appreciate. 



126 A Glance Backward 



XYIl 

The constitutional convention was the 
best misunderstood assembly, that the 
state of Connecticut has seen in 25, or 
twice that number of years, if ever. 
Born of an agitation, which began when 
Henry B, Harrison, of this city, and 
Stephen W. Kellogg of Waterbury, were 
apprentices in the game of politics, and 
continued on, until both had reached the 
eventide of life, it received its creden- 
tials from the general assembly of 1901, 
subject to the approval of the people, 
which was secured at the fall town 
elections. Governor George P. McLean, 
unfriendly to constitutional reform be- 
fore the election, opposed to a conven- 
tion after he had been inaugurated, 
nevertheless, in his inaugural message, 
recommended a scheme of representa- 
tive reform, which, had it been adopt- 
ed, would have put the agitation to 



A Glance Backward 127 

sleep for many generations. He com- 
bined, in that official recommendation, 
the sagacity of the trained politician, 
and the poise of the construc- 
tive statesman. He found, how- 
ever, at once the penalty which 
attaches to constitutional reform 
enterprises, and later was made to feel 
the sting of its lash. I recall the irrita- 
tion, entirely pardonable under the cir- 
cumstances, with which he viewed the 
renewed demand of the democrats for a 
convention, as the only practical and 
popular way out of the dilemma, which 
he had commented upon with such cour- 
age and truth in his message. Nor was 
his state of mind relieved by the atti- 
tude of his own party followers in the 
legislature. He had won over to his way 
of thinking the members of the repub- 
lican state central committee, though, 
oddly enough, he alone of that group of 
managers has been made to suffer for 
the undertaking. The wickedness of the 
others, which was just as politically 



128 A Glance Backward 

criminal as his own conduct, has ap- 
parently had no effect upon their pub- 
lic fortunes, but this is merely another 
illustration of the perversity of human 
nature, and is not likely to disturb the 
sense of humor, which has carried him 
over so many rough spots, and is des- 
tined to carry him over still others, 
until, through the very force of logic, he 
comes into his own. 



However that may be, this was the 
situation at the time the Hartford Yale 
Alumni association assembled at the 
Allyn house for its annual banquet. I 
had but a slight acquaintance with 
Governor McLean at the time, and did 
not share in what I had been told was 
his confident belief, that, before the 
close of the session of the general as- 
sembly was reached, a majority of both 
houses w^ould support his wise coun- 
sel. I do not know, of course, whether, 
at the time, he believed, way down in 



A Glance Backward 1 2 9 

his heart, that such an outcome was 
possible, but I could only draw the con- 
clusion from his speech that evening, 
that for the hour at least the move- 
ment was in a condition of suspension. 
The toast assigned him for the even- 
ing was, of course, "The State of Con- 
necticut," and when introduced he was 
greeted with the enthusiasm which his 
ability and charming personal presence 
justified. He picked up the threads 
of his address with that sprightly spirit 
and love of imagery which are so char- 
acteristic of all his public speeches, and 
spread before the delighted gaze of his 
admiring audience as pretty and effec- 
tive a word picture as I have ever seen 
of the natural and material charms of 
our state. He made one feel the proud- 
er of his citizenship, as he enumerated 
our virtues and atoned for our weak- 
nesses. In the course of a few mo- 
ments he reached that part of his ad- 
dress which had to do with the politi- 
cal organization of the government. 



130 A Glance BacJcward 

especially with reference to representa- 
tion in the lower house of the general 
assembly. Without circumlocution, and 
without apology for the conviction 
which held him tight, he spoke of the 
efforts that had been made in behalf 
of representative reform, and further 
defined his position as it had been out- 
lined in his inaugural message. So 
deftly, and with such exquisite touch, 
did he play upon the emotions of his 
audience, that I found myself drifting 
dreamily along with him, increasingly 
hopeful that he would win the good 
fight, and, through the power of his 
fascinating leadership, smash into a 
thousand bits the framework of the 
larger movement, which had been built 
up with such care and caution. The 
only other experience I ever had like 
it was in the national convention of 
1892. when the music of Bourke Coch- 
ran's aggressive eloquence, at 4 o'clock 
in the morning, lured me for the mo- 
ment from the Cleveland fastenings, 



A Glance Bachivard i3i 

and brought me to my feet with cheers 
for the speaker. "Who are you for, 
anyway?" asked Mr. Benedict indig- 
nantly tugging at my coattails; "sit 
down." "Just at present I am for that 
fellow up there," I replied. "I never 
heard such a speech," and then, brought 
back to my senses, I took my seat. So 
in the case of Grovernor McLean, I was 
being rapidly borne away from my in- 
tellectual moorings by the clear musi- 
cal notes of the spell he was weaving 
over the innocent heads of the diners. 
Turning suddenly to where I sat, by 
the side of Editor Clark of the Hart- 
ford Courant, and unmistakably point- 
ing his finger at me. he pleaded for the 
support of his panacea, "in the event 
of the failure of which," he added with 
nervous emphasis, "we may consider a 
convention," When my turn came I 
could not avoid a reference to the sub- 
ject, and with the daring, not to say 
impertinence, of after dinner license, I 
ventured to predict the arrival of the 
9 



13 3 A Glance Baclciuard 

convention first. The general assembly 
rejected his recommendation, and to the 
surprise of the state, under his leader- 
ship, gave its assent to the calling of 
a convention, which assembled on the 
first of January of the year following. 
Originally restless at the idea of con- 
stitutional changes in the method of 
representation, at last won over to the 
justice of the cause, hostile to the 
thought of a convention, it was never- 
theless from his hands that the first 
victory was won in Connecticut for 
popular government. When the final 
victory is recorded and the history of 
the prolonged movement comes to be 
written, his name will figure foremost 
among those to whose faith and per- 
sistency the convention owed its exist- 
ence, and who were citizens of the com- 
monwealth before they were members 
of a party. 



A Glance Backiuard 1 3 3 



XVIII 

" The assembling of the one hundred 
and sixty-eight men, representing the 
one hundred and sixty-eight towns of 
Connecticut, was a scene to be remem- 
bered. They represented, single-hand- 
ed, by popular choice, the constituen- 
cies from which they received their 
credentials. At the very outset, the 
non-partisan note was struck, which 
resounded throughout the entire ses- 
sion. Former Chief Justice Andrews 
was made president of the convention, 
with Judge John H. Perry and former 
Governor Thomas M. Waller vice-pres- 
idents. I do not intend to speak in de- 
tail of the proceedings of the conven- 
tion, as they were slowly formulated 
during the four and a half months we 
sat there. They are completed, and 
stored away among the archives of the 
comptroller's office, where students of 



13 4 A Glance Bachivard 

the question, those who are destined to 
win back for Connecticut the rule of 
the majority, may study them at their 
convenience. As a body, however, it 
was the most constantly and uninter- 
ruptedly interesting of any I have 
personally known, and the friendships 
formed there can only be compared, 
in their lasting and affectionate char- 
acter, with those formed in college, 
where one learns to clasp earnest- 
ly the hands of all, whether the 
battle goes the same for all or 
not, or whether all fight, or not, un- 
der the same banner. The mettle in 
the men who composed that body was 
made from the soil of good old Connec- 
ticut, and warmed by the rays of a 
common sun, placed by the same God 
in a common firmament. This was as 
true of Donald G. Warner of Salis- 
bury, the devoted leader of the Litch- 
field county group, who would have 
had a house of towns and a senate of 
the people, as it was true of Robert 



A Glance Backward i s s 

J. Vance of New Britain, who would 
have torn down the town divisions and 
set up in their places the mathematical 
supports of a true republic, or as it 
was true of the handful, who would 
have recognized the historic town sys- 
tem with a proper recognition of the 
rights of population. Warner at the 
very outset held in his hands the power 
to drive home the views that had tak- 
en such strong hold upon the imagina- 
tion of the majority. He could have 
carried his point and adjourned the 
convention in a month at the outside, 
had he used, like a giant, the strength 
of a giant. That he chose the opposite 
course can, and should be attributed to 
the genial character of the man, who 
preferred to let the debate take its 
course, after the old Connecticut prac- 
tice, perhaps overconfident in the stur- 
diness of his supporters, but at no 
time eager to take advantage of the 
minority. Not even when he saw his 
army weakened by honorable deser- 



13 6 A Glance Backward 

tions did he change his attitude. Un- 
til the last, when he saw his own plan 
fail of approval, and go the way of the 
other carefully considered substitute 
plans, he remained the same courte- 
ous adversary he had ever been. They 
say all is fair in love and war, but 
there was but one rule in the little 
struggle upon Capitol Park hill that 
winter, and that was the rule which 
makes defeat itself toothsome, through 
the sheer influence of mutual respect 
and admiration. There are adversa- 
ries in this world, with whom one can 
establish relations which survive at- 
tack. I confess to the keenness of the 
regret that moved me, when I was 
forced to withhold support from the 
Bissell amendment, which the conven- 
tion accepted, though urged to do so, 
for friendship's sake, by some of the 
men who had cast their votes regu- 
larly against us, and who were sin- 
cere in their desire that the hot 
brushes of the winter should be buried 



A Glance Bachivard 137 

beneath the leaves of that olive branch. 
I sincerely wanted to do it for their 
sakes, for we had personally outlived 
the prejudices of town and city, but 
knowing that I was bound to oppose 
it at the polls, I could not. 



I said at the outset that the conven- 
tion was the best misunderstood assem- 
bly the state had seen in twenty-five 
years, at least. I mean by that, either 
the public could not, or it would not, 
properly estimate the difficulties that 
lay in the way of a speedier record. 
It would have taken four months at 
the best to so far overcome the preju- 
dice, which the small townsmen had 
against the delegates from the cities, ag 
to permit a friendly conference between 
them. It is not necessary to discuss 
the nature and character of that pre- 
judice. It existed, and it had been 
overfed for generations, principally by 
selflsh city politicians, who were deter- 



13 8 A Glance Backward 

mined to prolong the advantage which 
they enjoyed as a consequence of 
things as they were. But as hard a 
task as that was, the ignorance of the 
convention itself, with regard to the 
proper way to proceed, was relatively 
harder. Not one man in that body, 
which included a former chief justice 
of the state, and two men who had pre- 
sided over the house of representatives 
as speaker, not to mention many 
trained lawyers and former state offi- 
cials, had the requisite information 
upon the subject of constitutional con- 
vention processes, to start the wheels 
of legislation. A striking example of 
the truth of this was shown at once, 
when the convention voted to raise 
committees to which resolutions should 
be referred, only to abandon that 
method at the very next session. The 
records of other conventions were 
sought and studied, and attempts were 
made to make them conform to Con- 
necticut needs, but the traditional Con- 



A Glance Backward i s 9 

necticut conservatism asserted itself, 
and it was destined that the convention 
should practically form its own rules 
of procedure. This all made for delay, 
and, what is worse, for the further 
misunderstanding of the convention it- 
self by the reading public. There ap- 
peared to be a general impression that 
a constitutional convention was more 
or less of a town meeting, and when 
it refused to budge under its tutelage, 
the conclusion was reached that time 
was being wasted. 



The result was disastrous. At 
the very moment when, by clear- 
ing the decks of all resolutions 
and plans, the convention was for the 
first time in a position to do something 
that would have been practical, the 
hasty im.patience of the public showed 
itself, and the cry of "adjourn" filled 
the air. It was the psychological mo- 
ment for the plan suddenly introduced 



14 A Glance Backward 

by Delegate Bissell of Suffield. It had 
not been examined by the leaders on 
either side, and was taken seriously 
by no one. I have never believed that 
Mr. Bissell himself, who was one of the 
most intelligent delegates in the con- 
vention, expected to see it adopted. It 
was adopted, more on account of the 
attitude of the public than anything 
else, and yet when that same public 
got its hands on it. it tore it into a 
million pieces. I have' never had the 
slightest doubt that, if the convention 
had adjourned at the moment Mr. Bis- 
sell was hastily drawing his plan at his 
desk, for a week or a month, and given 
time for the correction of a wrong 
public impression, the plan introduced 
by Marcus H. Holcomb of Southington, 
speaker of this year's house of repre- 
sentatives, would have been adopted 
and later ratified by the people, though 
that was a radical modification of the 
McLean plan, which I introduced. The 
members themselves had reached a 



A Glance Backivard i4i 

new state of mind, which was the re- 
sult of four months and a half of con- 
stant association and education, and 
they were ready, for the first time, to 
renew the consideration of the essen- 
tial reforms, from a broader point of 
view. They had learned, in other 
words, to regard differently a body 
that had in all other respects drawn 
a constitution, which will compare more 
than favorably with any constitution in 
any human language. 



14 2 A Olance Backward 



XIX 

There were, of course, many incidents 
in the course of the long session that 
were both delightful and amusing. The 
hospitality of the people of Hartford, 
for one thing, was as unbounded as it 
was kindly. I recall the comment of one 
of the popular delegates, who was in de- 
mand at dinner parties which had no 
remote connection with the business of 
the convention. It was near the close 
of the session when he was suffering a 
bit from indigestion. He said: "I came 
here to help repair the constitution of 
Connecticut. So far as I can see, the on- 
ly thing I have done is to impair my 
own." One day I was called out into 
the lobby to meet a friend, who had 
sent in his card. While I stood talking 
with him, Delegate Clark of Hartford 
came out to warn me, that, when I re- 
turned to the convention. Perry of 



A Glance Backward 143 

Southport, our brilliant vice-president, 
who was in the chair, intended to va- 
cate it and call me to preside. Clark said 
that Waller of New London, Brown of 
Norwich and a few other disinterested 
statesmen then intended to ply me with 
parliamentary inquiries, calculated to 
test my knowledge of parliamentary 
law, which it appears they held in no 
higher respect than they had reason to. 
I turned to thank Clark, and said flip- 
pantly: " All right. I'll fix them." As it 
happened these adventuresome gentle- 
men failed to carry out their plan, for 
which I am sorry, for I was prepared 
to appeal to the judgment of the con- 
vention, in whatever ruling I made, 
which in the humor of the hour would 
have probably been successful. But 
the annoyance of the incident did not 
develop in several days, during which I 
was sensitively aware that something 
was wrong somewhere and for some 
unknown reason. The bearing towards 
me of certain small town delegates. 



144 A Glance Backivard 

whom I liked tremendously, seemed dif- 
ferent. Finally one of them called me 
aside, and said that he believed I was 
an honest man. I humbly assured him 
that he had struck the right trail. He 
then asked me if I would answer truth- 
fully the question he desired to ask, no 
matter how embarrassing it was. I 
agreed. Whereupon he asked me, what 
I meant when I said to Clark of Hart- 
ford that I would "fix them." He asked 
who it was I had fixed and why? I told 
him I had not the slightest idea what 
he was talking about, at which he look- 
ed slightly incredulous, and I saw what 
reputation I had in his estimation flying 
up the chimney. I assured him that I 
was in earnest, and then it suddenly oc- 
curred to me that the quickest way was 
to call Clark out into the lobby and 
ask him to explain, which I did, with 
the result that the previous conversa- 
tion was recalled, as I have told it. I 
had saved my honor and was happy. 



A Glance Backivarcl 145 

It seemed to be my fate to have my 
association with Clark made a source 
of more temporary trouble. Not feel- 
ing first rate one afternoon, when a 
section of the constitution was under 
consideration, which did not concern 
me intimately, I went with some 
friends out to the Country club at 
Farmington. I had asked Clark if, in 
case of emergency, I could sign his 
name to a check for refreshments, and 
he said I could. The emergency was 
created, and I signed for something 
less than two dollars. Meeting him in 
the convention the next morning, be- 
fore it was called to order, and in front 
of the president's desk, I handed him 
a two-dollar bill, not only for the pur- 
pose of discharging my indebtedness, 
but to see if he had the honesty to re- 
turn me the change, which he never 
did. I learned later that the passage 
of money gave one good soul in the 
convention many hours of doubt and 
perplexity as to our honesty. The pas- 



146 A Glance Backward 

sage of the long green was too much 
for him, signifying, as it appeared to 
do, an unholy exchange, with Clark a 
Republican, and I a Democrat. I 
searched him out later, and reminded 
him. of the transaction, which he eager- 
ly recalled and asked me to explain. 
I did so by saying that Clark had in- 
sisted upon my taking the bill, of good- 
ly size, for my influence, and that since 
he thought so little of me as to ques- 
tion my probity, I determined to re- 
turn it to him in the most conspicu- 
ous manner, short of a statement to 
the convention. How Clark got out of 
it I never heard, but such little lapses 
count very little among Republican ed- 
itors and fiduciary directors. These 
were among the light experiences of a 
delegate, who came home, at the close 
of the convention, with a warm feeling 
of friendship for each one of his asso- 
ciates, whether he was with him or 
against him. 



A Glance Bachward 147 



XX 

To conclude these necessarily hur- 
ried and incomplete reminiscences, cov- 
ering the quarter of a century during 
which I have been fortunate enough to 
serve The Register, without recalling 
the inaugural message of Mayor Joseph 
B. Sargent, January 1st, 1891, would be 
to ignore the most comprehensive and 
far-seeing document of its kind that 
New Haven has ever had offered it, 
so far as I am aware. Before, how- 
ever, referring to it, a word about Mr. 
Sargent may not be out of place. I 
do not credit him with ideas of gov- 
ernment and social control which are 
exculsively original. He is, though, to 
be credited with the courage of those 
ideas and convictions, and in that re- 
spect his place among the mayors of 
the period, to which I have referred, 
is unique. Comparisons are odious and 

10 



148 A Glance Backward 

frequently seem unkind, when no such 
intention moves the writer, but, as in 
the final solution of all things in this 
world, credit must be given where it 
is due, it must be acknowledged that 
his counsel and public acts, while 
mayor, stamp his administration as 
one of a very unusual order. If men 
elected to the chief magistracy of our 
American cities were to bring with 
them, to the discharge of their official 
duties, the same single-mindedness and 
moral courage Mr. Sargent brought to 
the discharge of his task here, the mu- 
nicipal problem would long ago have 
been solved, or if not actually and en- 
tirely solved, brought so near that de- 
sirable condition as to make future 
progress more secure. In the conven- 
tional acceptation of the term, he is not 
and probably never could be made a 
practical politician. In the first place, 
his knowledge is based upon prolonged 
practical experience and upon extended 
observation of men and customs in ev- 



A Glance Bachiuard t49 

ery country of the world. Men who 
have thus been favored in the develop- 
ment of their minds, while they may 
not be made impatient of the slower 
and less reliable processes of less for- 
tunate fellow citizens, do unconsciously 
ignore them when asked to take the 
helm. It never occurred to Mr. Sargent 
to estimate the partisan effect of offi- 
cial acts; he did not owe his nomina- 
tion to the office he was elevated to fill, 
to partisan service. He was adjudged 
the likeliest man to defeat the Repub- 
lican candidate by those officially in 
command of the Democratic organiza- 
tion. It may be fairly doubted if his 
candidacy would have been urged had 
it been known that he would discuss in 
his message the then passive issue of 
government ownership. The public 
mind at that time had not been edu- 
cated up to its seriousness, as a possi- 
ble cure for the abuse of corporate 
power. The irritating pressure from 
that source had not been felt; corpora- 



ISO A Glance Backward 

tions were on their good behavior, or 
at least had not become so brazen as 
to literally drive men. conservative by- 
nature, to consider any remedy to be 
rid of the abuse to which their con- 
fidence, expressed in terms of legisla- 
tion, had been subjected. What would 
have happened here, at the time of 
Mr. Sargent's message, had he been a 
good "mixer," can only be left to spec- 
ulation. What did happen was the re- 
jection, through the process of neglect, 
of his views, by a community which to- 
day would show enthusiasm over them. 



The document, as a whole, shows a 
statesmanlike understanding of the 
needs of an industrial community, 
what the sources of its prosperity are 
and what the attitude of government 
should be, with here and there a de- 
lightful touch of humor. In speaking 
of the practices of exchange, which 
were indulged in, when the farmers in 



A Glance Backward isi 

neighboring towns came to town with 
their products which they traded 
off for their household needs, Mr. Sar- 
gent said that this sort of foreign 
commerce was satisfying. To quote 
him more accurately: "This foreign 
commerce, the location of New Haven 
and the gradual growth of Tale col- 
lege and a high stand in theological 
wrangling seemed to fill all the require- 
ments of New Haven's ambition for 
many generations." With a natural 
gift for analysis, Mr. Sargent proceed- 
ed to set forth the advantages of the 
city over those enjoyed by many other 
municipalities, and declared that "it 
will be the fault of its own people if 
the growth of New Haven does not 
continue to be rapid. We should re- 
move or overcome all obstacles, avail 
ourselves of all advantages that na- 
ture has given us, and establish and 
put into effect all reasonable methods, 
in order that the city may have a 
rapid but healthy and permanent 



1 s 3 A Glance Baclcivard 

growth." The enlargement of the 
city's limits, he at once identified as 
a pressing obligation, not from a sense- 
less craving for a mere bigger New 
Haven, but from an economic realiza- 
tion, that, in no other way, could 
the demands of a growing popula- 
tion be gratified; that the people were 
justified in their desire for more land 
freedom without sacrificing the protec- 
tion which goes with municipal con- 
trol. He saw clearly what the effect 
would be of the abandonment of the 
old town farm and its relinquishment 
to the building and home needs of the 
city. In speaking of the further ex- 
tension of the city limits, he said: 
"The inhabitants of the borough of 
West Haven and the village of Ailing- 
town have but little in common with 
the town of Orange, and the inhabit- 
ants of Orange, west of Allingtown hills 
have but little in common with West 
Haven and Allingtown. The town of 
Orange, outside the borough and vil- 



A Glance Backivard 1 5 3 

lage, in some respects repels; the city 
of New Haven attracts by all business 
and social influences of human exist- 
ence." It was in connection with this 
practical policy of expansion that 
Maj^or Sargent proceeded to consider 
possible influences that would work 
for good. It must be remembered that 
he was not seeking further political 
power, in making recommendations 
radical in character, which have since 
been experimented upon, more or less 
successfully. He was looking at the 
municipality as he had always looked 
at the needs of his manufacturing 
business, and with a firm faith in the 
honesty and capacity of the people 
to take better care of themselves than 
they could receive from private capital 
in certain definite directions. "I be- 
lieve," he said, "that all works of a 
public nature, carried on mainly within 
the bounds of a municipality, and for 
the purpose of supplying the inhabit- 
ants with certain daily requirements of 



154 A Glance Backward 

civilized city life, and requiring special 
rights of eminent domain to distribute 
their products, should be owned and 
operated by the people, and in the sole 
interest of the people." This is a flat 
declaration in favor of government 
ownership of public utilities, and would 
warrant me, if I were knowing to 
the facts, in touching briefly, and with 
indignation, upon the defeat of the pro- 
position, some thirty years ago, more 
or less, but at any rate before my time, 
to have the city buy the water com- 
pany, which it could have done at a 
price which it could have afforded to 
pay, and v/ith everlasting advantage 
to the people. It also recalls the reso- 
lution offered in the board of alder- 
men by Professor Newton of Yale, 
who had been elected to that position 
from the First ward, which proposed 
that before the Winchester Avenue 
horse car company be permitted to 
double track Meadow street, a certain 
control over the street, and the tracks 



A Glance BacJciuard 1 5 5 

themselves, be obtained. It is at least 
strange, in the light of what has since 
happened in action and in controversy, 
that, here in New Haven, a city given 
over to industrial undertakings, the 
two men to have early advocated gov- 
ernment ownership in different forms, 
but with the same idea in mind, should 
have been, one a practical, hard-headed 
manufacturer, and the other a pro- 
fessor at Tale college. 



In view of the revelations of dishon- 
esty which have come from a variety 
of sources during the past two years, 
sources controlled by private capital, 
the following- statement made by Mr. 
Sargent may make some of us stop 
and think even at this late day: "More 
and greater financial dishonesty ap- 
pears in banks and other private mon- 
eyed institutions, in proportion to 
work done, than in public service. And 
in fact, notwithstanding all the croak- 



15 6 A Glance Backward 

ings and lamentations of the ignorant 
good, public business is as well man- 
aged in New Haven as the average of 
private business." Mr. Sargent was an 
enthusiastic advocate of the generous 
park policy of the city, though he was 
impatient at the failure of the gov- 
ernment to establish a means of reach- 
ing the heights of East Rock park. He 
not only favored means of trans- 
portation at a small cost to the top of 
the rock, but he went a step father 
and advocated free public concerts 
there, and elsewhere, for the enjoy- 
ment of the masses. His broad- 
mindedness was further shown in mat- 
ters which affect the daily lives of the 
community at large, by expressing the 
hope that a free school of design "with 
freehand, architectural, furniture and 
mechanical drawing," would in time 
be established by the board of direc- 
tors of the free public library. But by 
far the most important recommenda- 
tion made by Mr. Sargent in his inau- 



A Glance Backward is'^ 

gural message was that embodied in 
his discussion of the question of taxa- 
tion and capital. The enthusiastic 
followers of Henry George will find in 
that part of the message much to en- 
courage their agitation. Mr. Sargent 
laid down the principle, that favorable 
general results depend upon the 
friendly association of labor, capital 
and managing ability. "A country," 
he declares, "with no capital, but with 
labor and the directors of labor (or 
chiefs) is in a savage state. A coun- 
try with all three of the elements har- 
moniously united is civilized, enlight- 
ened and prosperous. Civilization can- 
not exist without capital." With this 
as his text, Mr. Sargent proceeded to 
analyze the policy of the city in the 
matter of taxation, with a view to the 
common prosperity, and it is easy to 
see from what he said, that he under- 
stands the economic truths, which lie 
at the foundation of civic happiness. 
His views are so vivid and impressive, 



15 8 A Glance Backward 

and so fitted to the needs of the city 
today that I can perform no better 
service than recalling- them at this 
time. He said: "It seems to me that 
it would be for the benefit of all la- 
bor and all enterprise in the city of 
New Haven, and would greatly in- 
crease its growth in business, popula- 
tion and capital, if capital were as free 
of taxation as is labor, and as is man- 
aging ability. If such were the per- 
manent policy of New Haven, capital 
would make its home here and work 
at a lower rate with labor, securely 
free from punishment from coming 
here, and feeling safe in abiding here. 
Neither labor nor enterprise is taxed, 
nor should capital be taxed." He then 
made a plea for putting all taxation 
upon one article of such universal use, 
that no person can exist without its 
direct or indirect employment, which 
is obviously land. It will be remem- 
bered that President Mellen in one of 
his striking public addresses laid down 



A Glance Backward 159 

the principle, that a burden put upon 
a railroad company is a burden put up- 
on the users of the corporation, for 
the company lives off the taxation it 
imposes upon its clients; and that 
therefore unnecessarily restrictive 
and oppressive legislation injures the 
community more than it does the road, 
which can still the more easily protect 
itself. So Mayor Sargent laid down 
the similar proposition: "Any disad- 
vantage or harm attempted to be put 
upon capital always reacts upon labor, 
while capital silently flies away to a 
place of security, if not of profit." 



6 A Glance Backward 



XXI 

The task of reminiscencing is not so 
difficult as it may appear. The real 
task consists in quitting before 
it grows tiresome to the writer. There 
is an old saying, to the truth of which 
I can obviously not testify, that the 
successful poker player is one who 
knows when to lay down his hand. 
It is certainly true of a successful 
newspaper to know what not to print. 
I have no way of knowing whether oth- 
ers have enjoyed these fleeting papers 
or not. I hope they have, not because 
I claim for them any value whatever, 
but because they have done me a sight 
of good to write them. As I said at 
the beginning, I refuse to regard 
twenty-five years of service on a news- 
paper, with all of its necessarily varied 
joys and trials, as an indication of 
Osleric age. My associates in this of- 



A Glance Backward i e i 

fice, representing every department, 
were kind enough to celebrate my 
completion of twenty-five years of ser- 
vice, and I felt I owed it to them, 
whose friendship is priceless, to let 
them see, in this way, how much I 
appreciated their thoughtfulness. Not 
all of us, unfortunately, realize how 
much a little act of kindness, or a 
pleasant word, dropped at the right 
moment, unlocks the door of need, and 
brings back to life the emotional long- 
ings of bygone days, and makes worth 
while again the illusions, which, in the 
thoughtlessness of increasing years, we 
declare have disappeared. There would 
be no loss of helpful illusions, founded 
on sweet sentiment and fond association, 
if the channels which float the milk of 
human kindness were left unobstructed 
by the rocks and ridges of thoughtless- 
ness. This is a beautiful world, and 
there is work of the most engaging 
character for all, if only the inhabi- 
tants of it will remember that crude old 



16 3 A Glance Backward 

saying of the farmer: "You can catch 
more flies with molasses than with vin- 
egar." There is a heap more fun, 
healthier sleep, better appetite and a 
larger bank account in trying harder 
than ever to regard and treat others as 
we would like to be regarded and 
treated by others. If fate is only good 
to us, and twenty-five years hence the 
same men are found seated about the 
same table, that sat there on the even- 
ing of the third of July, what splendid 
reminiscences we shall have then to 
recall, and with what genuine affection 
shall we toast those, who, though not 
of us in the world of newspaper mak- 
ing, are equally essential to our happi- 
ness and to the preservation of our 
ideals. In the meantime may the state 
of Connecticut, the city of New Haven 
and every political division of the com- 
monwealth go on to greater and 
greater prosperity, the welfare of one 
remaining the concern of all. 



OCT Jgy 1905 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 






00141131783 t 

















